The Virginian (otherwise titled "The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains)" is a 1902 novel by the American author Owen Wister (1860-1938), set in Wyoming Territory during the 1880s. It describes the life of a cowboy on a cattle ranch and is considered the first true fictional western ever written, aside from short stories and pulp dime novels, though modern scholars debate this. "The Virginian" paved the way for many more westerns by such authors as Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour and several others.