Walk the Read
We challenge you to embark on a 10,000-step adventure of literary landmarks.
Categories: Featured Travel Stories
By: Meghan Saar 03/01/2008
Owen Wister
“When you call me that, smile!” True fans of the American West know this line by heart, and know the source of it is Owen Wister’s The Virginian, a prototypical Western novel that created the basic Western formula still used to this day. In his 1894 diary, Wister attributed the basis for this quote to John Lawrence in Fetterman, Wyoming, in 1885 or 1886. During a card game, Lawrence turned to the man who had been calling him names and said, “You smile when you call me that!”
In Medicine Bow, Wyoming, you can visit the general store where Owen slept on the store counter his first night in Medicine Bow (he later recounted this experience in the novel). You can also visit his home and hunting lodge, now housed in the train depot, along with the Medicine Bow Museum. The three-story 1911 Virginian Hotel was named after his 1902 book and is a national historic
site today.
Writers interested in Wister’s vision of the West would be wise to plan a visit to Laramie, where you can view his diaries, letters, photographs and manuscripts that informed the author’s work at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.
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