Talk:List of works by John Buchan

The Runagates Club

The Runagates Club is listed here as a novel but it is actually a collection of 12 short stories in the dining-club style popular in the early 20th century, where each member of the club tells a story in turn. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Filigree11 (talk • contribs) 20:53, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. I have moved The Runagates Club into the short story collection section of the article. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:18, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

The Island of Sheep

There seems to be some confusion in the Novels section about The Island of Sheep. This is actually a 1936 novel. The publication noted in the list as "being by Buchan and Susan Buchan, writing as Cadmus and Harmonia" is actually a 1919 symposium of the same name. Buchan reused the symposium's title for his later 1936 novel.

Source: Lownie, Andrew (2013). John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier. Thistle Publishing. p 190. ISBN 978-1-909609-99-0.

I have amended the list accordingly, and have added some additional information to the The Island of Sheep article. MichaelMaggs (talk) 19:17, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

The Watcher by the Threshold

Surprised to find that the list excludes this collection of five novellas first published in 1902. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.197.221.75 (talk) 00:48, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

Well spotted. I've added it. MichaelMaggs (talk) 20:14, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Montrose

Hi SchroCat, not sure it was really necessary to revert me within seconds with the unfriendly comment "What on earth are you talking about?" If you meant that the existing reference links to the WorldCat website, that is of course correct. Anyway, the point of my edit was to propose that the entry in the table should refer to the book Montrose published in 1928 by Thomas Nelson & Sons, in Edinburgh. It may perhaps have been called Montrose: a history in the US version, but WorldCat gets the Nelson title wrong as the words "a history" do not appear. I am suggesting changing the cite to refer to the 1928 Scottish version which - given Buchan's nationality - should be preferred. So, changing to the Scottish title, and dropping WorldCat in favour of the British Library catalogue. I can verify the BL catalogue against the details on the actual book. Sorry that I stated the reference number incorrectly in my edit; the id for the 1928 printing should be 000512725. Regards, MichaelMaggs (talk) 22:00, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

The "What on earth are you talking about?" comment wasn't unfriendly; it was bemusement in your previous edit summary "It is a book". Which it is, of course, but I was totally unsure about what you were on about.

As to the rest, we don't defer to the nationality question on points like this, we go with the first true edition, which (I seem to remember from when I wrote the page in the first page) was the US edition. That's why there are several works that are shown as being published in the US, rather than the UK. Thanks - SchroCat (talk) 07:53, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree with you that we should be looking if possible for the 'true' first edition, if there is one, regardless of nationality. And if you had added that citation yourself as part of your original research for the article I would happily have assumed you had good reason for citing the US printing. But you didn't: the entire row was kindly added to the table by SusanLesch in this edit of 27 May 2019 after she noticed that the book was missing. Maybe she can respond here to confirm that she investigated and found that the US printing was indeed the best one to use, in which case that's absolutely fine.

However, in the absence of such confirmation this citation stands as a really odd exception to the article as a whole. Apart from Two Ordeals of Democracy (1925) which was a printing of a lecture specifically for a US audience, every single other work published in his lifetime is best sourced according to your research from a first edition that was published in the UK. That was Buchan's almost invariable approach. I do think that this merits a closer look. MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:55, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable source that states he published first in the UK for every book except one? That would go against the sources I have found that say otherwise. - SchroCat (talk) 13:08, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Of course not, that's not what I said. I said that every single other work published in his lifetime is best sourced according to your research from a first edition that was published in the UK. Not sure why this one should be different, unless someone has actual evidence to the contrary. MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:26, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

OK, thanks for clarifying. - SchroCat (talk) 13:48, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

I only know Buchan wrote two books about Montrose and that I recorded my copy from Cambridge, Mass. This discussion is over my head so I leave it to you. This article seems to suggest he wrote three, my mistake. By the way, I recommend it. A thrilling story. -SusanLesch (talk) 15:18, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

These For Remembrance

Internet Archive has a digitised (but limited preview) copy of These For Remembrance, so adding a link here in case that helps (not sure if that is universally a limited preview, or if it is visible in some countries). Out of interest, does anyone here know who the six friends were that Buchan paid tribute to here? I know his younger (kid) brother (Alastair Ebenezer Buchan) was killed in the war aged 22 (John Buchan was in his 40s at the time), see here and here and here. Ah, I've found the answer to my question above, see here. Those Buchan paid tribute to were Thomas Arthur Nelson ('Tommy Nelson'), Auberon Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas ('Bron Lucas'), Brigadier-General Cecil Rawling, Lord Basil Temple Blackwood, John Stuart 'Jack' Wortley and Raymond Asquith. The one with no article is John Stuart Wortley and [1]. Carcharoth (talk) 06:14, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

US titles

Quite a few of Buchan's books were published in the US under different titles, for example Mountain Meadow for Sick Heart River. As the titles given here may not be familiar to some American readers, would it be worth adding US titles where they differ? If so, what's the best way to do that? Perhaps an additional title column? That would be a clean approach and would give space for a reference to be added in each case. MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:43, 3 December 2021 (UTC)