John Buchan, 1875-1940

Portrait

Biographical note

Buchan's 100 works include nearly thirty novels and seven collections of short stories, as well as biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. Buchan was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, but the most famous of his books were the spy thrillers, and it is probably for these that he is now best remembered. The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts in the Canadian wilderness the questions of the meaning of life. The insightful quotation "It's a great life, if you don't weaken" is famously attributed to Buchan, as is "No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated."

Works

Fiction

The "Richard Hannay" series:

  • image The Thirty-Nine Steps [1915]
  • image Greenmantle [1916]
  • image Mr. Standfast [1919]
  • image The Three Hostages [1924]
  • image The Island of Sheep [1936]

The "Edward Leithen" series:

  • offsite The Power House [1916]
  • offsite John Macnab [1925]
  • offsite The Dancing Floor [1926]
  • offsite The Runagates Club [1928]
  • offsite The Gap in the Curtain [1932]
  • image Sick Heart River (also published as Mountain Meadow) [1941]

The "Dickson McCunn" trilogy:

  • offsite Huntingtower [1922]
  • offsite Castle Gay [1930]
  • image The House of the Four Winds [1935]

Other works:

  • image John Burnet of Barns; a romance [1898]
  • Grey Weather [1899]
  • image A Lost Lady of Old Years. A romance [1899]
  • read The Half-Hearted [1900]
  • A Lodge in the Wilderness [1906]
  • image Prester John [1910]
  • read The Moon Endureth [1912]
  • read Salute to Adventurers [1915]
  • read The Path of the King [1921]
  • offsite Midwinter [1923]
  • image Witch Wood [1927]
  • offsite The Courts of the Morning [1929]
  • The Blanket of the Dark [1931]
  • offsite A Prince of the Captivity [1933]
  • offsite The Free Fishers [1934]
  • The Long Traverse (also published as Lake of Gold) [1941]

Short stories

  • offsite The Far Islands
  • image The Keeper of Cademuir [Glasgow University Magazine, 1894]
  • image Journey of Little Profit [The Yellow Book, 1898]
  • image No-Man’s-Land [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1899]
  • image The Far Islands [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1899]
  • image The Watcher by the Threshold [Atlantic Magazine, 1900]
  • image The Outgoing of the Tide [Atlantic Monthly, 1902]
  • image The Grove of Ashtaroth [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1910]
  • image Space [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1911]
  • image Basilissa [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1914]
  • image Fullcircle [Atlantic Magazine, 1920]
  • image The Magic Walking Stick [in Sails of Gold, 1927]
  • image The Strange Adventure of Mr. Andrew Hawthorn [The Silver Ship, 1932]
  • image The Company of the Marjolaine
  • image The Herd of Standlan
  • image The Last Crusade
  • image The Black Fishers
  • image At the Rising of the Waters
  • image At the Article of Death
  • image Comedy in the Full Moon
  • image ‘Divus’ Johnston
  • image Politics and the Mayfly
  • image The Wife of Flanders
  • image The Frying-Pan and the Fire

Non Fiction

  • Scholar-Gipsies [1896]
  • image The African colony : studies in the reconstruction [1903]
  • The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Income [1905]
  • image Some eighteenth century byways and other essays [1908]
  • Sir Walter Raleigh [1911]
  • What the Home Rule Bill Means [1912]
  • image The Marquis of Montrose [1913]
  • Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall [1913]
  • Britain's War by Land [1915]
  • The Achievement of France [1915]
  • Ordeal by Marriage [1915]
  • The Future of the War [1916]
  • image The battle of the Somme, first phase [1917]
  • image The Battle of the Somme, second phase [1917]
  • The Purpose of War [1916]
  • image The Battle of Jutland [1916]
  • Poems, Scots and English [1917]
  • These for Remembrance [1919]
  • The Battle Honours of Scotland 1914-1918 [1919]
  • image The history of the South African forces in France [1920]
  • image Francis and Riversdale Grenfell : a memoir [1920]
  • The Long Road to Victory [1920]
  • image A history of the great war v.1 [1923]
  • image A history of the great war v.2 [1923]
  • image A history of the great war v.3 [1923]
  • image A history of the great war v.4 [1923]
  • image A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys [1922]
  • The Last Secrets [1923]
  • A History of English Literature [1923]
  • Days to Remember [1923]
  • Some Notes on Sir Walter Scott [1924]
  • offsite Lord Minto, A Memoir (1924)--
  • The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers 1678-1918 [1925]
  • The Man and the Book: Sir Walter Scott [1925]
  • Two Ordeals of Democracy [1925]
  • Homilies and Recreations [1926]
  • The Kirk in Scotland (with George Adam Smith) [1930]
  • Montrose and Leadership [1930]
  • Lord Rosebery, 1847-1929 [1930]
  • The Novel and the Fairy Tale [1931]
  • Julius Caesar [1932]
  • Andrew Lang and the Borders [1932]
  • The Massacre of Glencoe [1933]
  • The Margins of Life [1933]
  • Gordon at Khartoum [1934]
  • Oliver Cromwell [1934]
  • The King's Grace [1935]
  • Augustus [1937]
  • The Interpreter's House [1938]
  • Presbyterianism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow [1938]
  • Memory Hold-the-Door (also published as Pilgrim's Way) [1940]
  • Comments and Characters [1940]
  • Canadian Occasions [1940]
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