This collector-quality edition includes the complete text of Owen Wister's classic tale of life on a Wyoming cattle ranch in the closing days of the American West of the cowboy in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition, together with an original, detailed biography of author Owen Wister and an introductory note discussing the enduring significance of this work. With a generous 6"x9" page size, this Summit Classic edition is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Page headers, a modern easy-to-read font and page design that evokes the classic values of traditional book publishing exemplify the attention to detail given this volume. Published in 1902, "The Virginian" is widely regarded as the first true modern novel in the "western" genre, paving the way for countless tales of the cowboys of the American west. Unlike the dime novels that preceded it, "The Virginian" involved complex characters and social themes, and while the tale includes plenty of action its portrayal of life in the west goes well beyond the dime novel cliches of smoke-filled saloons and showdowns in the dusty streets. The story opens with a meeting in Medicine Bow between the main character and the narrator, newly arrived in Wyoming from the east. Neither character is ever identified by name, but the Virginian and the Tenderfoot become friends as the Virginian guides the newcomer along the nearly 300 mile trek to Judge Henry's ranch in Sunk Creek, with the Tenderfoot discovering that life in the west is not what he expected. The novel revolves around the Virginian and the life he leads, with major storylines involving his conflict with Trampas, who becomes a bitter enemy, and his romance with Molly Stark Wood, a pretty schoolteacher from a socially prominent eastern family. A major scene is the hanging of an admitted rustler and friend. The Virginian participates as a matter of necessity, but the event gives rise to the moral and emotional center of the story while allowing the author to comment on what he sees as the lack of governmental authority exercised by inept and corrupt offcials in the developing west. A tale of action, hatred, friendship, love, revenge and honor, the story follows the Virginian from his days as an assistant foreman to his ultimate success as a rancher, emphasizing his honesty and integrity, his fairness in dealing with others and the strength of character that allows him to stand out in the rough-and-tumble life of the closing years of the wild west of the cowboys. Owen Wister (1860-1938) was born to a socially prominent and wealthy family in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Wister attended schools in Switzerland and Britain and graduated from Harvard, where he was a classmate and friend of Theodore Roosevelt, in 1882. He studied music in Paris for two years before taking a position at a New York bank and then practicing law in Philadelphia. Wister spent several summers traveling in the American west,where he befriended Frederic Remington and became enamored of the culture and lore of the region. Wister wrote several novels, a number of nonfiction books, a large number of short stories and essays, and several unpublished plays. Wister is considered the father of western fiction, and "The Virginian" is his only work still widely known today.