The Virginian opens with a dedication to Wister's Harvard buddy, Teddy Roosevelt, who encouraged him to write about the West. Some editions of the book include this Latin quotation from Horace's ode, Otium (Hey, I know that word! It's "peace."):
…mihi parva rura et
Spiritum Graia tenuem Camenae
Parca non mendax dedit, et malignum
Spernere vulgus.To me Fate that does not belie her name has given
a small domain, the fine breath of Muses' Grecian song,
and the spiteful crowd to spurn.
The introduction in my 1988 Penguin Classics edition also begins with a quote:
It was once in the saddle I used to go gay.
—Cowboy's Lament
Heh. I wonder if that's where Annie Proulx got the idea?
