The Virginian: A Horseman on the Plains.

WISTER, Owen.

Item Number: 140449

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902.

First edition of the first true fictional western ever written, with a signed card tipped into the half-title page which reads, “Owen Wister Fontainebleau, July 26, 1921.” Octavo, original tan cloth stamped in red, black and gilt, with eight full-page illustrations by Arthur Keller. In near fine condition.  An exceptionally fresh example of this classic novel.

Owen Wister’s novel of Wyoming cowpunchers “became one of the first mass-market bestsellers and stands as a defining text for America’s most durable hero— the cowboy… In a way, after The Virginian, there need never have been another western. In a way, there wasn’t” (Harvard Magazine). It has been the basis for several films, most notably in 1929, directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper as The Virginian.