The Virginian

About “The Virginian”

The Virginian (1902) is a romance by Owen Wister that helped shape cowboy fiction. The story follows a narrator from the East who travels to Wyoming and meets the Virginian, a skilled and handsome cowboy. The Virginian competes with Trampas for control of the land and shows that local customs are powerful. He also courts Molly Wood, a Vermont schoolteacher, in a different kind of struggle. The novel reflects Wister’s experiences in Wyoming and Montana from 1885 to 1900. This edition includes Wister’s essay The Evolution of the Cow-puncher (1895), which offers additional insight into the novel.