The Virginian (Abridged, Audio cassette, Abridged edition)

Dime novels had featured some rather scrawny horse-bound tenders of cattle, but not until 1902 did the cowboy become a fully realized article of American culture. That year Owen Wister, a native of Philadelphia, published the novel that established the conventions of the western. An immediate best seller, it has never faded from public consciousness. Suddenly, there was the natural aristocrat, the Virginian, who faced down the Archetypical villain, Trampas, flinging at him the unforgettable words: "When you call me that, smile " There was the spunky, eastern schoolteacher, Molly, far from being a wilted flower. They moved in the raw, bracing atmosphere that generations of readers and movie-goers would come to expect from westerns.