The Path of the King and an Indian artist's impression of John Buchan
John Bridle
In the early months of 1920 John Buchan moved to Elsfield to begin a sustained period of writing for the next fifteen years or so. During the war he had lost friends, had been shaken by their deaths and also needed to try to recover his health from the effects of intense working during that period. A consequence as Buchan declares in Memory Hold-the-Door (1940, p206) was a 'desire to recover the sense of continuity, which had brought me to Elsfield', and which 'prompted my first serious piece of fiction, The Path of the King'. He had been developing its theme 'the notion that no man knows his ancestry, and that kingly blood may lie dormant for centuries until the appointed time' over many years. Commercially it was one of his least successful but was the start of several exciting historic adventures which gave him immense satisfaction to create as well as contributing to a steady income from writing.
Some of Buchan's stories were pre-published in serial form and that process was followed for The Path of the King, this time in the monthly magazine Outward Bound during 1920 and 1921 as described in Andrew Lownie's biography of Buchan (p176). Outward Bound's editor Basil Mathews no doubt saw in Buchan, following his three enormously successful Hannay stories, an important 'name' with which to launch the new publication. The episodic nature of the story would have also suited serialisation very well. From Buchan's standpoint a significant reason in choosing Outward Bound may have been the magazine's intention, set out in the second issue, to 'seek a real understanding of other races and nations, and help to discover a way through these great international and inter-racial problems with which men and women ... are faced'. The magazine's aims included development of the broad theme of Empire and its peoples, a concept important to Buchan from early days and developed in A Lodge in the Wilderness in 1906. It is probable that his wife also was sympathetic to the new magazine, since there is an article in the sixth issue by Susan Buchan entitled 'Touchstone'. This explores her thoughts following a trip to Paris when she encountered on the Boulogne train a woman returning from the battlefields having located her son's grave. The piece is well-written and evocative of the awfulness of the war and its aftermath. Susan Buchan explored the idea that 'once at least in each of our lives ... reality tears through'. The article contained a reference to the pilgrim Mr Standfast.
In the light of Buchan's work with Lord Milner in South Africa it is interesting to find in the magazine's eleventh issue an exclusive interview with 'Lord Milner: Imperialist and Socialist'. Of note also I think, in view of the final chapter of The Path of the King, is an article by John Drinkwater entitled 'Lincoln: The World Emancipator'. From all of this I conclude that Buchan had a strong preference for Outward Bound, as opposed to other popular magazines or periodicals of the day, in which to serialise this particular book.
Janet Adam Smith, who knew the house and JB and his family in it, wrote so well that I can't do better than quote at some length, especially as what she wrote is apposite to what I want to go on to say.
To me a significant aspect of pre-publication in Outward Bound was the inclusion of two very different representations of the author. At the start of the first installment is a photograph of Buchan in uniform probably taken four years earlier. The second, on the facing page of the fifth installment, is a sketch of Buchan by Mukul C Dey, the Indian artist. One can speculate that the sketch was, as the installments progressed, an attempt to present to Outward Bound readers a less 'establishment' image of Buchan to contrast with the military photograph at the beginning.
Following serialisation the story was published in 1921 by Hodder and Stoughton at 8/6d. This was one shilling and sixpence more than his previous major adventure Mr Standfast in 1919. The higher price of The Path of the King was no doubt an attempt by Hodder to capitalise on the success of the Hannay stories. In the event the historical fantasy did not attract the same wide readership as the thrillers. The publisher reacted quickly and in 1922 Huntingtower, the next adventure, was retailed at 7/6d. This price continued unchanged up to and including in 1936 The Island of Sheep.
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