Cross-Border Cowboy
Owen Wister’s The Virginian may have a real-life Canadian connection January | February 2016
One of the enduring iconic images of the American and Canadian wests is the frontier cowboy. He is independent, fearless, hardy and good-hearted, particularly with women and animals, but willing to indulge in violence to maintain a largely self-determined natural justice.
To many, the frontier cowboy is the epitome of true democracy—unencumbered by the perceived effeteness and social orders of the eastern American and European cultures—who is willing to vigorously defend the free exercise of…