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Can you imagine what the popular culture of the 20th Century of Western Civilization would have been without the Western? (And I suppose for some decades in Japan without the samurai movies.)
I believe that The Virginian by Owen Wister was the first example of the Western whose existence the public knew of.
Wikipedia says that
1) The Virginian "is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel..." and
2) Wister was the "'father' of western fiction."
The staples of the Western are there!
And I believe that The Virginian was the origin of the phrase, "Smile when you say that"!
I find it interesting that The Virginian was published in 1902. Thus, the Western is a 20th Century invention about the 19th Century.
And in addition to all of that, I and many others enjoyed reading it very much. Wikipedia says that The Virginian "was reprinted fourteen times in eight months."
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