The New International Encyclopædia/Wister, Owen

WISTER, Owen (1860—). An American writer, born in Philadelphia, Pa. He graduated at Harvard in 1882 and at the Harvard Law School in 1888, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1889, but after 1891 devoted himself almost wholly to literature. His stories, which deal largely with Western life and character, are widely popular. Besides contributing a number of short stories and some verse to the magazines, he published: The Modern Swiss Family Robinson (1883); The Dragon of Wantley: His Tail (1892, new ed. 1902); Red Man and White (1896); Lin McLean (1898); The Jimmy John Boss and other Stories (1900); U. S. Grant, a Biography (1900); The Virginian (1902), which was exceedingly popular; Oliver Wendell Holmes (1902), in the “American Men of Letters Series;” Benjamin Franklin (1904), in the “English Men of Letters Series;” and Philosophy Four (1903), a short sketch. In co-operation with G. B. Grinnell and Caspar Whitney, he also published The Bison, Musk-Ox, Sheep, and Goat Family (1903), in the “American Sportsman's Library.”