Letter from Charles B. Penrose to Owen Wister, May 11, 1892

Charles was friends with the novelist Owen Wister, a famous author best known for his work The Virginian, a fictionalized version of the Johnson County War published in 1902. In this letter, Charles may have inspired the most well-known line in The Virginian (son of a bitch), a particularly improper insult at the time. In this letter Charles uses the phrase frequently.

Resource Identifier

ah09626_049-051

Citation

Charles B. Penrose papers, Collection No. 9626, Box 1, Folder 3, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

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https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/ahcpublic/Johnson/ah09626_049-051.pdf