born July 14, 1860, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
died July 21, 1938, North Kingstown, R.I.
U.S. novelist.
A well-to-do Easterner who graduated from Harvard, he spent his summers in the West from 1885. After practicing law for two years, he devoted himself to a literary career. His novel The Virginian (1902), the story of a cattle-ranch foreman who depends for his life on a harsh code of ethics, was a great popular success and helped establish the cowboy as an American folk hero and stock fictional character; the novel became the basis of a play, numerous films, and even a television series. His other major work was Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship, 1880–1919 (1930), detailing his long acquaintance with his Harvard classmate Theodore Roosevelt .
Wister
By courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.