The Watcher by the Threshold and Other Tales ~ Paperback ~ John Buchan

John Buchan was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in southern Africa. Buchan proved to be enthusiastic about literacy, as well as the evolution of Canadian culture, and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom. From "The Watcher by the Threshold": I have told this story to many audiences with diverse results, and once again I take my reputation in my hands and brave the perils. To the common circle of my friends it was a romance for a winter's fire, and I, the most prosaic of men, was credited with a fancy. . . . One man only heard me with true appreciation; but he was a wandering spirit with an ear open to marvels, and I hesitate to advance his security. He received it simply, saying that God was great, and I cannot improve upon his comment. Thus begins Buchan's unnerving tale of terror at the edge of the Scottish highlands. Buchan -- a man more remembered for mysteries and war stories -- was a real hand with horror, and this 1902 compilation displays his facility nicely. Also included in this volume are "No-Man's-Land," "The Far Islands," "The Outgoing of the Tide," and "Fountainblue."