The Legendary Cowboy

The cowboy was first glamorized in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in 1883. The first cowboy hero of fiction was that show's "king of cowboys," Buck Taylor, who was the subject of a series of dime novels by Prentiss Ingraham. However, the book that set the pattern for the cowboy of fiction "Westerns," motion pictures, radio, and television was Owen Wister's The Virginian (1902). Wister's cowboy story mentioned cows only once or twice; later writers rarely mentioned them at all.

The legendary cowboy is represented by the professional rodeo performer and by such actors as "Bronco Billy" Anderson, William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, and Roy Rogers. Most "Westerns," however, are concerned more with sheriffs, cavalrymen, gunmen, gamblers, and outlaws than with cowboys.