''Sick Heart River'' (1941) is a novel by Scottish author

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 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. After a brief legal career ...

set in Canada. It was published posthumously. The book was published in the United States under the title ''Mountain Meadow''.

Plot summary

Sir Edward Leithen Sir Edward Leithen is a fictional character in several of John Buchan's novels: ''The Power-House'', ''John Macnab'', ''The Dancing Floor'', ''The Gap in the Curtain'' and ''Sick Heart River''. These were published over a number of years, the first ...

is diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis and given a year to live. While he is deciding how to spend his remaining days, an American associate, John S. Blenkiron, requests help to find his niece's husband, Francis Galliard, who has disappeared from his very successful financial career in New York and fled to Canada. Leithen follows Galliard to Quebec. During this he finds a mountain meadow he had seen on a trip thirty years earlier and which has stayed in his memory since. Leithen finds Galliard and nurses him back to health. He then decides to stay with some Indians and help them.

Background

Buchan wrote this while

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

and

Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh The chancellor is the titular head of the University of Edinburgh. Their duties include conferring degrees, promoting the university's image throughout the world, and furthering its interests, both within Scotland and beyond. The position was cr ...

. It was published posthumously following his death as a result of a fall and stroke. It is one of Buchan's most spiritual novels, exploring the themes of death and redemption. The fictional Sick Heart River is in the real region of the

Nahanni River The South Nahanni River is a major tributary of the Liard River, located roughly west of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the centerpiece of Nahanni National Park Reserve. It flows from the Mackenzie Mountains in the w ...

in Canada's

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

. The area was only just being mapped when Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, passed nearby during his voyage down the Mackenzie River in the summer of 1937. Buchan always wanted to visit the Nahanni but never made it before his death in February 1940.

Reviews

* Ritchie, Harry (1981), ''Buchan and Linklater'', which includes a review of ''Sick Heart River'', in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 7, Winter 1981-82, p.46,

References

External links

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Review
at Oxonian {{John Buchan 1941 British novels Novels by John Buchan Novels set in the Northwest Territories Scottish novels Novels published posthumously Hodder & Stoughton books