John Buchan, Prester John

Kate Macdonald (University of Ghent)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1910

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing
Novel

Resources

Prester John was the first novel written by John Buchan since 1900. It appeared after his two-year stint of post-Boer War government work, resettling the Boers and later colonists into farms and townships in South Africa (1901-1903), and was his first full-length treatment in fiction of his African experience. He went to South Africa when he was 26, and he was 35, a recently-married man, when he wrote the novel. He had published an imperialist tract, The African Colony, as soon as he returned from South Africa, in 1903, but this was a more deeply-felt discussion to how South African civil society could be reformed than a creative response to the country. A few years later Buchan wrote a second African-inspired work, <…

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2403 words

Citation: Macdonald, Kate. "Prester John". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 August 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20322, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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