Owens Books

The Virginian was the inspiration for The Shopkeeper. The inspiration didn't come from the main character of the novel, but from the life of Owen Wister, the author of this classic. Originally published in 1902, Wister visited the Old West in the late nineteenth century and wrote from personal experience.

Although the Virginian can be a somewhat difficult read today, I liked it because Wister wrote from the personal experiences he recorded in his journal. I've never seen the journal, but I've read editor's excerpts that refer to incidents in the book, like the baby-swapping episode. I also read that his editors made him revise the final gunfight because it might offend the squeamish. Too bad. For someone reared on Louis L'Amour, the ending comes across as anticlimactic.

Most people are unaware that The Virginian was a runaway bestseller in its day. The book not only set the parameters for the Western genre, it's still considered a literary work that shows that tales of the Old West can be art.

If you'd like a great companion book, try Mark Twain's Roughing It (Mark Twain Library). If you want to get a feel for the comraderiship and ethos of the Old West, these books will not disappoint you.

The Shut Mouth Society

Wow, this was so good; I could not put it down. The Virginian is the most incredible, honest, honorable, handsome (sigh) hero to come along the pike in a long long time. And what a scamp, LOL at his plot to switch the babies (clothes and all) around, so that the parents took home the wrong kids, had to come back to the Judge's ranch, leaving Molly the new teacher alone for him to call on!

Lots of love, laughter and excitement as the Virginian falls for the new teacher from the East, rounds up cattle rustlers and vanquishes the bad guys. The author's prose was glorious, although rather dense (for lack of a better word); it reminded me of Nathaniel Hawthorne. You really have to pay attention and don't let your mind wander or you will end up backtracking so you don't miss any of the story. The author's descriptions of the Wyoming countryside, and most especially the Tetons, were wonderful and I felt like I was right there.

Truly one of the best yarns I have ever read, with a nail biting finish during the final showdown with the bad guy, as Molly has to reconcile herself as to what is more important, her east coast sense of righteousness or her love for her man. Highly recommended.

The Virginian was the inspiration for The Shopkeeper. The inspiration didn't come from the main character of the novel, but from the life of Owen Wister, the author of this classic. Originally published in 1902, Wister visited the Old West in the late nineteenth century and wrote from personal experience.

Although the Virginian can be a somewhat difficult read today, I liked it because Wister wrote from the personal experiences he recorded in his journal. I've never seen the journal, but I've read editor's excerpts that refer to incidents in the book, like the baby-swapping episode. I also read that his editors made him revise the final gunfight because it might offend the squeamish. Too bad. For someone reared on Louis L'Amour, the ending comes across as anticlimactic.

Most people are unaware that The Virginian was a runaway bestseller in its day. The book not only set the parameters for the Western genre, it's still considered a literary work that shows that tales of the Old West can be art.

If you'd like a great companion book, try Mark Twain's Roughing It (Mark Twain Library). If you want to get a feel for the comraderiship and ethos of the Old West, these books will not disappoint you.
The Shut Mouth Society

VIRGINIAN -by Owen Wister ( first reviewed 30 April 2006)

Though "The Virginian" has a standing as a Western novel, it is philosophically rich, and Owen Wister used this novel to articulate certain fundamental truths. (I always find great clarification from older books, books written before TV, before Computers, and even before Radio. In these, one can still find clarification of values, that is not easily found in modern literature, when those who write books don't know the difference between "Come!" and "Go sic'em!" ) Wister's book is not just a "shoot'em-up". The reader needs to be aware of the depth of the philosophical arguments offered by his characters

(1)
the definition of a "gentleman" (in Chapter Two)

(2)
the conflict between GOOD (the Virginian) & EVIL (Trampas, the cowhand turned rustler and worse, corrupter of men, resulting in their destruction

(3)
the definition of "love" ; NOT the romantic love between the school teacher and the cowboy. Rather, it was the love the Virginian showed to his fellow cowhand, vulnerable to manipulation and deceit, in trying to shepherd the man's soul along the lines of the soul's deepest strengths (the Judge's hired hand who loved horses).

(4)
the definition of "spirituality"; Wister draws a stark contrast between the traveling preacher, who wears his religious "act" like a cheap black suit and poorly conceals his contempt of common men in his arrogance and superiority complex.
Moreover, Chapter Two demonstrates the essential requirement of HUMILITY that the Virginion manifests (a character trait utterly lacking in the minister).

(5)
the definition of "conflict": indeed, the entire book is about the very human fight at the very core of life. The Virginian demonstrates the singular truth, clear to anyone who actually engages life, that you cannot find an answer to life's conflict by simply turning away and riding out of town. There is no answer to life's problems in mere "conflict-avoidance", nor in folding our hands and practicing some NAMBY-PAMBY sentiment passing under the guise of LOVE.

When The Virginian beats the stuffing out of one of the most despicable of human beings (the abuser of horses) he demonstrates the timelessness of the truth, that good people must stand for something. Even today, deceit and lies have been popularized so that one often hears admonitions, suggesting that we should all practice, "NON-JUDGEMENT." That only bears out, if you choose to embrace ideological horse-flop as life's dearest treasure.

Some fights must be fought, though we do not enjoy them. The EVIL that Trampas represents, will not back down, in its mindlessness. Riding away simply turns over the reins of power to the embodiment of EVIL.

(6)
the definition of "humor": (I cannot spoil the story but...the CHICKEN, the DRUMMERS, the railroad ride after the cattle sale)
There are numerous accounts demonstrating how good people find humor at every chance, and who use humor and imagination to fight evil in everyday circumstances.

(7) DUTY: As Foreman of the Judge's ranch, the Virginian endures many slights and insults to his authority by a "top hand" or two. Not once does he inform the Judge of these difficulties. Why? Because performing his duty includes these things. It is his job; and the Virginian performs his duty as a worthy hand.


The Virginian was written by Wister to a deep purpose, so deep in fact, that I believe it was largely lost on the world. True, it was made into many movies, but even in these, even the great ones, the TRUTHS Wister elaborate in the book are vastly watered down. You cannot acquire Wister's purpose merely by watching a movie. You can only find them in the book.

The book, in the wording of an older era, may seem awkward, perhaps ...slow; but I suggest you think of it as a foray into another place, the Wyoming of a hundred years ago, with vast prairies of open sky, only rarely interrupted by a human dwelling, and more rarely still, by a town. Words then, were a relief from the prairie, which alternates from being vastness of eerie silence, punctuated by violence.

In certain ways, Wister eclipses Melville's "Moby Dick". He was not credited with being the literary giant that Melville enjoys in literary history, but in my opinion, he arrived at a deeper point, and quicker. Melville's characters are melodramatic and driven, often as not, by superstition and wild, incomprehensible urges. Wister's characters are driven by a more familiar greed, a more familiar goodness, a more familiar treachery, an everyday ordinariness, if you will.

When Melville gives his characters something to contend with, they must contend with the ultimate superwhale, Moby Dick, or, it is the strange obsessive madness of the captain. These are less often encountered by people generally, in any age. Wister's evil is not, like Melville's, the Arch-Evil of some cartoonish melodrama. Wister's evil is the cattle rustler, driven by personal selfishness, and a contempt for common values. In my opinion, there is more of a lesson for us in Wister's presentation of evil as more of an everyday, and an ordinary thing, in an ordinary humanity.

There is a foreshadowing in Wister's novel, of a theme exploited to great success by Louis L'Amour half a century later: the notion of a cowhand, who has vaguely ridden on the wrong side of the law. From the start, we become aware that the Virginian is not a "saint". He is a man molded by hard living in the American West. Somewhere on Life's road, a choice was made to care for people, and not merely to steal from others to advance self. Wister's rejection of EGO-CENTRISM as a basis for living is clear. Duty to principle is the honorable alternative.

****** The ACADEMICS and their perspectives on the Virginian*********


There have been some academics who have written prefaces, introductions, and essays about the Virginian, and their natty-brained intellectualizations frequently seem to dominate the public's understanding of the Western, and Wister's tale.

Here's where they go wrong. Writing from the concrete castles of academia, these academics are far removed from the realities of life, especially from the world Wister showed us. Academics operate in an abstract realm of ideas, where they assure themselves that human conflict (and even violence) are all a thing of the past, and that their wordy perambulations have encompassed all that is known of man. After all, they tell us with great bluster and probity that the cowboy and his myth have vanished. That may be so; but what has never changed in life is CONFLICT. It was not removed when TV was invented.

There are those who afford themselves the privilege of scoffing at defining good and evil. These are people who are not engaged in the struggle. They are the spectators in life, and that is why we must guard carefully to never let such tell us how we ought to think and act. Invariably, they will discourage all action.
by this philosophy, a cynical and skeptical view is proper, and inaction is the order of the day.

Wister's Virginian, shows where a man's duty lies, and how he ought to go about conducting himself in facing conflict. The cowboy may be gone, but human conflict is always with us.

Though literary critics advance Mark Twain or Nabokov or Melville or some such as authors of The Great American Novel, for me, it will always be The VIRGINIAN. --Bruce Bain

The book is like a magnet. It does not want to leave your hands untill the last page. Gives a different prospective of the civil war and reconstruction, along with a great story. I would forsee a movie.

I am an adult and unable to find the adult form so let me say here whan I started this book I was unable to put it down.
The detail and accuracy of history shows the ammount of research that went into this book.Aside from history it was a great book that covered more than I expected.If your interest is the civil war,the development and eveloution of the guns of that era or romance,you will love this book

The Weary Generations, originally published as 'Udas Naslein', in Urdu brought Abdullah Hussain's name to the forefront of Urdu and Indo Pakistan literature. This novel won the prestigious Adamjee award, and later Abdulla Hussein also recieved the Khwaja Ashkar Hussain award for life long achievemnt and excellence in Urdu laguage and literature.

His novel was selected as the heritage literature by Unesco and has already been translated in to major languages including Chinese and Hindi.

The Weary Generations is the translation of his acclaimed novel rendered into English by the author himself.

The novel deals with a very distinct but difficult theme of the pre and post partition Indian sub continent. Many of the Urdu and other writes have fictionalized the impact and effect of the partition, but most of these other stories dealt with an urban theme.

Weary Generation takes the readers to the roots of the sub continent's ethos and culture that is woven into the lives of the rural folks. These are the land less farmers, tillers enslaved by their destinies, whose worlds changed with the shock of the division of a land that nourished them for centuries with utter disregard of communal or religious differences. It is the story of those who have always been pawns in other people's wars.

Abdullah Husein's characters are rooted in the hard ground,in the Sun baked merciless plains, in lush green farms, in the aspirations and miseries of the folk people who have loved and hated each other, lived together tied with the bonds of destiny, and were separated for no fault of theirs.

Many novel and stories have been written about the Raj, the independence of India, and the Partition before. The Weary Generations is a must read for those who are intetested in the pathos, sensibilities and survival of the rural down trodden of Indo Pak sub continent.

The Weary Geneartions was preceeded and succeded by several of Abdullah Hussein's works. A collection of his short stories has been translated into English under the title 'Stories of Exile and Alenation', these stories also help the reader in reading the Weary Genartaions. His first original English novel "Emigree Journeys", has just been published.

His works have also been converted into films and plays by the BBC and Pakistan Television.

The Weary Generations, originally published as 'Udas Naslein', in Urdu brought Abdullah Hussein's name to the forefront of Urdu and Indo-Pakistan literature. This novel won the prestigious Adamjee award, and later Abdulla Hussein also recieved the Khwaja Ashkar Hussain award for life long achievemnt and excellence in Urdu laguage and literature.

His novel was selected as the heritage literature by Unesco and has already been translated into major languages, including Chinese and Hindi.

The Weary Generations is the translation of his acclaimed novel rendered into English by the author himself.

The novel deals with a very distinct but difficult theme of the pre and post partition Indian subcontinent. Many of the Urdu and other writers have fictionalized the impact and effect of the partition, but most of these other stories dealt with an urban theme.

Weary Generation takes the readers to the roots of the subcontinent's ethos and culture that is woven into the lives of the rural folks. These are the landless farmers, tillers enslaved by their destinies, whose worlds changed with the shock of the division of a land that nourished them for centuries with utter disregard of communal or religious differences. It is the story of those who have always been pawns in other people's wars.

Abdullah Hussein's characters are rooted in the hard ground,in the sun-baked merciless plains, in lush green farms, in the aspirations and miseries of the folk people who have loved and hated each other, lived together tied with the bonds of destiny, and were separated for no fault of theirs.

Many novels and stories have been written about the Raj, the independence of India, and the Partition before. The Weary Generations is a must read for those who are intetested in the pathos, sensibilities and survival of the rural down trodden of the Indo-Pak subcontinent.

The Weary Geneartions was preceeded and succeded by several of Abdullah Hussein's works. A collection of his short stories has been translated into English under the title 'Stories of Exile and Alienation', these stories also help the reader in reading the Weary Genartaions. His first original English novel "Emigree Journeys", has just been published.

Earlier the BBC produced a film 'Brothers in Trouble' based on his 'Wapsi ka Safar'. His works have also been serialized on Pakistan Television.

There's not much that can be said about Wilfred Owen that shouldn't have already been said. Yet the life of this brilliant poet, which was cut short just before the armistice that ended World War I, remains unknown to far too many. Wilfred Owen is referred to as a "soldier-poet" of WWI, which includes him in the company of such literary standards as Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. But, as perhaps the greatest poet among the three, he is the least known. Dominic Hibberd's new biography will hopefully set that to rights.

I first fell in love with Wilfred Owen's poetry when I read "Dulce et Decorum est." I found his imagery real and terrifying as it spoke to the true brutality and horrors of "modern" warfare. (The poem is a description of a soldier dying in a gas attack.) Throughout the years I have read much on WWI and on the soldier-poets, but nothing has come as close to so vividly portraying the life of one of them as Hibberd's new biography.

Hibberd begins his very thorough telling of Owen's life, starting with his familial background and youth, and working his way through Owen's years as a parish assistant and his numerous attempts to gain a university education. It seems a long time before we are to encounter Wilfred as a soldier, but Hibberd builds a solid base that explains Wilfred's personality and his attitude towards poetry. Owen's devoutly Evangelical mother had wished her son to enter the service of the church, but after his time in Dunsden, Owen found it increasingly hard to reconcile his Christian faith with his love of literature, finding the two to oppose each other. His one desire in life was to be a poet, and upon entering the English army, he probably had no idea that his voice would come through war. Only a few of Owen's poems (five) were published in his lifetime and after his untimely death, his poetry was collected and published in the 20s and 30s. Afterwards, he seems to disappear entirely from the literary map until a renewed interest in his work arose in the 1960s; an appropriate time since another "war to end all wars" was being fought in Vietnam.

The one area of dicord I take with this biography concerns Owen's sexuality. In the book jacket, and several times throughout the book, Hibberd states that Owen was a homosexual. This is evidently shown through his connections with various personages who were homosexuals, including his friend and mentor, fellow soldier and poet, Siegfried Sassoon. While I don't doubt that this was the truth regarding Owen's sexuality, Hibberd seems a little over-insistent with too little to back it up. Yet perhaps this is due to the inconsistencies that exist in the mystery surrounding Wilfred Owen. Hibberd makes it known that much was done by Owen's brother Harold to paint his brother (as well as himself and the family name) in a better light. As curator of his brother's letters, Harold took great pains to destroy any references that could be suspicious, which must include references to Owen's sexual preferences. As seemingly complete as this biography is, Hibberd himself points out in his epilogue that there are facts about Owen's life that we may never know.

This book is an engaging read for any fan of World War I or any fan of poetry. The literary world is much indebted to Owen, whose poetry spoke the truth in a time or darkness, and whose innovations with style and technique were revered by the very poets he once emulated. If only the literary world was aware of this. Perhaps Dominic Hibberd's book will finally grant Owen his distinguished place and well-deserved fame in modern literature.

Following up on "beckahi" ... You may feel that Hibberd, in discussing Owen's sexuality, "seems a little over-insistent with too little to back it up," but this only reflects your unwillingness to admit the obvious. Owen's gayness is undisputed, except perhaps, as you say, by his brother Harold who was motivated by a misguided desire to "enshrine" Wilfrid's legend and effectively clean up the details he didn't like.

Owen's and Sassoon's romantic relationship has been well documented, but the proof is in the pudding! Owen *himself* writes about his feelings toward men, both in his private correspondence and, most significantly, in the poetry. Several poems (such as "Arms and the Boy" and "Sonnet To My Friend - With an Identity Disc") have heavy homoerotic content, and one ("To Eros") makes a crystal clear reference to the gender of his beloved. Credit should be given to Hibberd for discussing all this in the light of day.

As for the renewed interest Owen's poetry received in the 1960s, this is mostly due to it being masterfully set by Benjamin Britten in his 1962 "War Requiem". And let's just say that Britten's pacifism was not the only reason he felt a deep kinship toward Owen! ;-)

I can really help people make decisions with choosing a wine now

Wow! I work in the restuarant business and this book is a Godsend! Never again will I be confused or intimidated by a guest's wine order. All I have to do is quickly look up what they order (which is easy because the book fits right in my apron), and return to the table with the wine and all sorts of fun information. For example, just the other night someone ordered a Sancerre from me priced at $38. While I was waiting for the wine from the bartender, I looked up Sancerre and discovered that it was a 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France. I read a couple other things about the Loire Valley and returned to the table and totally impressed my guests! It was so much fun! I recommend this book to any fellow server who deals with a nice wine list. It has really made my job a lot easier and a lot more profitable! Honest!

When I turned 50 I was feeling pretty blue. A friend pointed me to Women Celebrating Life as a way to uplift myself. I tried the ceremony for the fiftieth birthday and then the one titled Forgiving Mother. Wow! I didn't know how much "stuff" I had stored away. I feel relieved of a lot of animosity now. I would recommend this book to any woman who wants to release negative feelings associated with growing older and other life situations. As the author intended, the book helps to turn lemons into lemonade. I plan to buy some more books for Christmas presents.

Women Celebrating Life is a must have book for all women to keep on their bookshelves throughout their lives. It spans a lifetime, covering the same things we all go through; from puberty to birthdays to marriage to babies to deaths and everything else in between. Simple ceremonies are included for these stages of life which encourage self recognition, understanding of others, and self empowerment through forgiveness or celebration. The ceremonies bring self assurance to girls at puberty, grand ceremony to landmark birthdays, and comfort through divorce and death. It's not a book you have to sit down and read at one time, you can simply refer to the chapters as the occurances in your life arise. I turn 50 in two months and am eagerly awaiting to celebrate this half century mark in ceremony with my friends and family. The book will also make a great gift to give my women friends and nieces.

This volume contains one of the greatest collaborations in literary history. Coleridge wrote of the supernatural and distant, and Wordsworth of the everyday and near in Nature. Coleridge wrote his poetic masterwork ,

This collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge signaled the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry and announced all the important themes and techniques of the movement: the healing power of nature and art, the importance of "ordinary" man and woman, the pervasiveness of the supernatural in everday life, etc. The book also broke old rules by incorporating prosaic, common language in the poems.

Sometimes the poems are mawkish and strain for effect, but for the most part they are powerful and moving. Most famous of Coleridge's contributions, of course, is "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", with its admonition to respect ALL of God's creation. But even lovelier is "The Nightingale", a paen to the restorative power of art.

Wordsworth's most famous contribution is "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", but he also submits several excellent narrative poems with supernatural themes.

I subscribe to everything the previous reviewer wrote, and wish to add that besides the often far-reaching philosphical insights proposed in these debates, this book is also a perfect showcase for Owen Barfield's tremendously sharp and comprehensible mind. It will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys reasoning in the best Platonic tradition. As such, I think it is the best, most accessible introduction to Barfield's philosophy. It may, finally, also well be read simply as a novel, with well worked-out characters, for Barfield's purposes, and an ending that is one to remember.

Long ago Owen Barfield perceived a disconnect between science and meaning - as early as the 1920's - and argued that the gulf between them was only getting wider and deeper by the 1960's. In Worlds Apart, he attempted to make explicit the presuppositions of the science of the day, discuss whether or not those presuppositions made sense, and what the implications were in either case.

Worlds Apart is a dialogue between two physicists, a biologist, a psychiatrist, a theologian, a teacher, a philosopher, and a lawyer. The conversation takes place over three days, and is set in the 1960's. The pace of the dialogue is brisk, the subject matter is fascinating, and many of the threads of thought and their conclusions are still, in 2003, refreshing and profound.

One such presupposition that gets quite a working over is this: the world is ultimately real only on the level of particles, or atoms. Anything not explainable in terms of particles is a subjective "experience" or appearance. Trees "appear" as trees because of the activity of our human minds. Other humans "appear" as humans because of the activity of our minds.

But if only particles *really* exist, and if all the appearances only arise in human minds, then why do we talk about the history of the earth, before humans were around, in terms of appearances - like trees and dinosaurs (which are only appearances)? Or, why do we talk about remote solar systems or galaxies in terms of appearances - warmth or coldness, brightness or darkness, etc.?

Even with Barfield's unmistakable English writing style, and *because* of his philosophical bent, Worlds Apart is a refreshing and disturbing read, one that is likely to take you out into very deep water, far, far from any shore you recognize.

Honestly, if you haven't bought this book then you are missing out on one of the funniest things that the WWW has ever had gracing it's user interface.

This book is a collection of comic strips that Owen Dunn has produced as part of his web commic conveniently located at http://www.youdamnkid.com/ as part of the Keenspot network. It is a fairly quick read - I managed to get through the whole book in a little under 30 minutes, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in punch.

It may not save your soul, but it will give it a great big laugh.

The title might have thrown you off, but you would understand it if you have read Owen Dunne's book, You Damn Kid.

YDK is about a family growing up in the `good old days' (about 1960s), and it is set around "The Kid" who is our protagonist. Live through the days when you had to go to a Catholic school taught by nuns, as well of days of sweet innocence and naiveté. Throughout the comic strips, "The Kid" runs into fascinating people such as the cantankerous Sister Margaret, the drunken Aunt Claire, and the retarded kid Jethro.

Owen Dunne has been drawing comics for his website since 1999, and he brings up some very interesting questions. Questions like "how things would be different if Jesus was a woman" and "why can't I say I'm sorry with my middle finger" and "If Jesus came back, what would he be?"

Unfortunately, like Sinfest, YDK probably will not be syndicated, due to the fact that there is some brief nudity in some strips, as well as situations that kids nowadays simply won't understand. Situations like the kid being killed in a bizarre petting zoo incident and when "The Kid" had an arm cast with naughty things written on it. The newspapers are too scared to print anything dealing with religion or sex, and Owen Dunne has a few strips about those subjects.

So buy a copy of this book and laugh. These strips are funny, insightful, and serious (at times), and maybe you would learn a thing or two.