Action Buchan, John: Sick Heart River. V1. 14 March 2013

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Buchan, John: Sick Heart River (1941)

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.

In his last years, Buchan, amongst other works, wrote an autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, as well as works on the history and his views of Canada. He and Baroness Tweedsmuir together established the first proper library at Rideau Hall, and, with his wife's encouragement, Buchan founded the Governor General's Literary Awards, which remain Canada's premier award for literature. Buchan's 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories, and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. Buchan was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of the Marquess of Montrose, but the most famous of his books were the spy thrillers, and it is 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 the questions of the meaning of life in the Canadian wilderness. The insightful quotation, "It's a great life, if you don't weaken," is famously attributed to Buchan,[28] as is, "No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated."
—Information adapted from Wikipedia

On April 7, 2011 crutledge originally uploaded his conversion of the book to MobileRead. I have added Howard Swiggett’s lengthy and informative Introduction (with footnotes) from the third printing of this book. The introduction features an extensive examination of many of Buchan’s books and the philosophies espoused in them. I have changed the cover at the front, updated the table of contents, changed some formatting and added “curly quotes.”


Plot Summary from Wikipedia:
The plot is particularly poignant, since it discusses a terminally ill man, Edward Leithen, going off to die in a hidden valley in the Canadian wilderness.

Buchan wrote this while Governor General of Canada and it was published posthumously following his death as a result of a fall and stroke. It is one of Buchan's most spiritual novels, talking about death and redemption. The book contains an Introduction by Howard Swiggett.

Source: Project Gutenberg Canada – first listed on 13 March 2013
Conversion with thanks using using Sigil 0.7.1 and Calibre 0.9.22
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