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Prester John is a 1910 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was first published in Great Britain in 1910 by T. Nelson and Sons. Adventure Magazine serialized the novel in the United States in 1911. The first US edition was published by the George M. Doran Company in 1910. Interestingly both book publications predate the pulp magazine serialization.
The novel tells the story of the young Scotsman David Crawfurd and his adventures in South Africa, where a native uprising under the charismatic black minister John Laputa is tied to the medieval legend of Prester John.
Prester John was Buchan's sixth published novel, and the first to reach a wide readership, establishing him as a writer of fast-paced adventures in exotic locales. He drew the background from his two-year stint in South Africa (1901–1903) as political private secretary to Lord Milner, High Commissioner for Southern Africa, in what came to be known as Milner's Young Men or Milner's Kindergarten. It was there that he gained a feeling for the man of action and the sense of adventure, as well as practical, political training. A 1920 silent film Prester John, based on the novel, was shot and produced in South Africa by African Film Productions.
PRESTER JOHN
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