John Buchan, 1875-1940
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:
The Thirty-Nine
Steps [1915]
Greenmantle
[1916]
Mr. Standfast
[1919]
The Three Hostages
[1924]
The Island of Sheep
[1936]
The "Edward Leithen" series:
The
Power House [1916]
John Macnab [1925]
The
Dancing Floor [1926]
The
Runagates Club [1928]
The
Gap in the Curtain [1932]
Sick Heart River (also
published as Mountain Meadow) [1941]
The "Dickson McCunn" trilogy:
Other works:
John Burnet of Barns; a romance [1898]- Grey Weather [1899]
A Lost Lady of Old Years. A romance [1899]
The
Half-Hearted [1900]- A Lodge in the Wilderness [1906]
Prester John
[1910]
The Moon Endureth
[1912]
Salute to Adventurers
[1915]
The Path of the King
[1921]
Midwinter
[1923]
Witch Wood [1927]
The Courts of the
Morning [1929]
The Blanket of the Dark [1931]
A Prince of the
Captivity [1933]
The Free Fishers
[1934]- The Long Traverse (also published as Lake of Gold) [1941]
Short stories
The Far
Islands
The Keeper of
Cademuir [Glasgow University Magazine, 1894]
Journey of
Little Profit [The Yellow Book, 1898]
No-Man’s-Land
[Blackwood’s Magazine, 1899]
The Far Islands
[Blackwood’s Magazine, 1899]
The Watcher
by the Threshold [Atlantic Magazine, 1900]
The Outgoing of
the Tide [Atlantic Monthly, 1902]
The Grove of
Ashtaroth [Blackwood’s Magazine, 1910]
Space [Blackwood’s Magazine,
1911]
Basilissa [Blackwood’s
Magazine, 1914]
Fullcircle [Atlantic
Magazine, 1920]
The Magic
Walking Stick [in Sails of Gold, 1927]
The Strange Adventure of Mr. Andrew Hawthorn [The Silver Ship, 1932]
The
Company of the Marjolaine
The Herd of
Standlan
The Last Crusade
The Black Fishers
At the
Rising of the Waters
At the
Article of Death
Comedy in
the Full Moon
‘Divus’ Johnston
Politics and
the Mayfly
The Wife of
Flanders
The
Frying-Pan and the Fire
Non Fiction
- Scholar-Gipsies [1896]
The African colony : studies in the reconstruction [1903]- The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Income [1905]
Some eighteenth century byways and other essays [1908]- Sir Walter Raleigh [1911]
- What the Home Rule Bill Means [1912]
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]
The battle of the Somme, first phase [1917]
The Battle of the Somme, second phase [1917]- The Purpose of War [1916]
The Battle of Jutland [1916]- Poems, Scots and English [1917]
- These for Remembrance [1919]
- The Battle Honours of Scotland 1914-1918 [1919]
The history of the South African forces in France [1920]
Francis and Riversdale Grenfell : a memoir [1920]- The Long Road to Victory [1920]
A history of the great war v.1 [1923]
A history of the great war v.2 [1923]
A history of the great war v.3 [1923]
A history of the great war v.4 [1923]
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]
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]


