THE POWER-HOUSE

1916. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1916. Original rose cloth.

First Edition of this mysterious tale of international intrigue, featuring Edward Leithen (who would reappear in other Buchan tales). The Power-House is a secret anarchist organization, led by a wealthy Englishman, which aims to destroy Western civilization. Buchan had written this tale in 1913, at which time it was serialized in Blackwood's Magazine; as for the three-year delay in book publication, in his dedication to a general at the front Buchan observes: A recent tale of mine [THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS] has, I am told, found favour in the dug-outs and billets of the British front, as being sufficiently short and sufficiently exciting for men who have little leisure to read. My friends in that uneasy region have asked for more. So I have printed this story, written in the smooth days before the war, in the hope that it may enable an honest man here and there to forget for an hour the too urgent realities... As with THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, this book was very cheaply bound, and is accordingly difficult to find in desirable condition today. This is a near-fine copy (spine a little faded, as usual for this color cloth, but there is scarcely any wear or soil). Blanchard A35.