[Next project] The Power-House, by John Buchan (Leithen #1)

[David]

I'm about half-way through proofing The Roots of the Mountains, and thought I'd start prepping something...

I've had my eye on Buchan's "Edward Leithen" series for a while:

1. The Power-House (1916) ~55k words
2. John Macnab (1925) ~83k
3. The Dancing Floor (1926) ~80
4. The Gap in the Curtain (1932)
5. Sick Heart River (1941)

So for #1: 

• Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power-House
• PG: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/57631
• IA: https://archive.org/details/powerhouse0000unse_v9l8

I haven't set up a repo yet—pending answer to initial query—but it will be: 

https://github.com/dajare/john-buchan_the-power-house

The query is: do we retain the hyphen in the title? It's there in the original publication, of course, and most subsequent reprints. Some modern reprints omit it (and some use both!). The "Power-House" is a "sinister international organization"; it appears as such (caps and hyphen) 16× in the body of the novel.

I'm not so sure about the first edition cover art; I think we can probably do better, but if we want it, I'll find the cleanest example I can. (There are a few out there, none great, to be fair.)

How does this look?

David / Fife, UK

[Emma Sweeney]

I found another copy of the cover that's in better condition.

Emma

[David]

Thanks, Emma! That's much cleaner.

As an alternative, this one from our DB caught my eye:

But I'm fairly sure there are other "formal dining" paintings that could work; I haven't as yet put any effort into that.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, sure. I think you can remove the hyphen. You can put the hyphenated
title in the metadata using dcterms:alternative. I've started a project
with a repo URL without the dash, Lukas will manage with Vince reviewing.

On 11/22/25 6:25 AM, David wrote:
> I'm about half-way through proofing The Roots of the Mountains, and
> thought I'd start prepping something...
>

> I've had my eye on Buchan's "Edward Leithen <https://en.wikipedia.org/
> wiki/Edward_Leithen>" series for a while:
>
> 1. The Power-House (1916) ~55k words
> 2. John Macnab (1925) ~83k
> 3. The Dancing Floor (1926) ~80
> 4. The Gap in the Curtain (1932)
> 5. Sick Heart River (1941)
>
> So for #1:
>
> * Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power-House
> * PG: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/57631
> * IA: https://archive.org/details/powerhouse0000unse_v9l8

>
> I haven't set up a repo yet—pending answer to initial query—but it will be:
> https://github.com/dajare/john-buchan_the-power-house
>
> The query is: do we retain the hyphen in the title? It's there in the
> original publication, of course, and most subsequent reprints. Some
> modern reprints omit it (and some use both!). The "Power-House" is a
> "sinister international organization"; it appears as such (caps and
> hyphen) 16× in the body of the novel.
>

> I'm not so sure about the first edition cover art <https://
> dominicwinter.blob.core.windows.net/stock/673882-0.jpg>; I think we can

> probably do better, but if we want it, I'll find the cleanest example I
> can. (There are a few out there, none great, to be fair.)
>
> How does this look?
>
> David / Fife, UK
>

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[David]

Ah - just to confirm, you want "The Powerhouse", the way you've got the project, rather than "The Power House" (keeping space, caps, but no hyphen)?

I'm guessing the answer is "Yes", but the MW form looks very odd to me in this context: this will be the first time (and only, so far as I can tell) it appears this way (single word) for this book—there are a couple of times when it's referred to as "this phrase" in the body of the novel—so just double checking!

[Alex Cabal]

I removed it as a matter of course; if it is used in the sense of
"having great power" or "a team characterized by aggressive play" then
no dash is appropriate. Organizations and individuals can be powerhouses.

If it is used in some other sense in this book then we can look at the
context.

On 11/22/25 3:56 PM, David wrote:
> Ah - just to confirm, you want "The Powerhouse <https://
> standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse>", the way you've

> got the project, rather than "The Power House" (keeping space, caps, but
> no hyphen)?
>

> I'm guessing the answer is "Yes", but the MW <https://
> standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse> form looks very

> odd to me in this context: this will be the first time (and only, so far
> as I can tell) it appears this way (single word) for this book—there are
> a couple of times when it's referred to as "this phrase" in the body of
> the novel—so just double checking!
>
> On Saturday, 22 November 2025 at 17:54:00 UTC Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK, sure. I think you can remove the hyphen. You can put the hyphenated
> title in the metadata using dcterms:alternative. I've started a project
> with a repo URL without the dash, Lukas will manage with Vince
> reviewing.
>
> On 11/22/25 6:25 AM, David wrote:
> >
> > The query is: do we retain the hyphen in the title? It's there in
> the
> > original publication, of course, and most subsequent reprints. Some
> > modern reprints omit it (and some use both!). The "Power-House" is a
> > "sinister international organization"; it appears as such (caps and
> > hyphen) 16× in the body of the novel.
>

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[David]

"Power-House" in this novel is the *name* of an organization; it could also be an attribute, of course.

The string occurs 15x in the body of the novel. I've put them all in a "KWIC" in this gist:
https://gist.github.com/dajare/cdea0b18a8342ee8884238d5a68d483a

It's referred to as a "phrase" in ##2 and 8. Casting my eye down them, I still find `Power House` fits Buchan's usage better, but `Powerhouse` could work. In a couple cases (##1 and 4, `a Power-House`) there is then the question as to whether it makes sense to retain the caps.

I'd be grateful if you'd have a look and confirm. It's as well to get this right at this stage, rather than try to unpick a wrong choice later, I think.

Thanks!

[Alex Cabal]

I think it works fine without the dash. I agree you can remove the caps
in those two cases.

On 11/24/25 4:14 AM, David wrote:
> "Power-House" in this novel is the *name* of an organization; it could
> also be an attribute, of course.
>
> The string occurs 15x in the body of the novel. I've put them all in a
> "KWIC" in this gist:
> https://gist.github.com/dajare/cdea0b18a8342ee8884238d5a68d483a
>
> It's referred to as a "phrase" in ##2 and 8. Casting my eye down them, I
> still find `Power House` fits Buchan's usage better, but `Powerhouse`
> could work. In a couple cases (##1 and 4, `a Power-House`) there is then
> the question as to whether it makes sense to retain the caps.
>
> I'd be grateful if you'd have a look and confirm. It's as well to get
> this right at this stage, rather than try to unpick a wrong choice
> later, I think.
>
> Thanks!
>
> On Sunday, 23 November 2025 at 20:52:58 UTC Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> I removed it as a matter of course; if it is used in the sense of
> "having great power" or "a team characterized by aggressive play" then
> no dash is appropriate. Organizations and individuals can be
> powerhouses.
>
> If it is used in some other sense in this book then we can look at the
> context.
>
> On 11/22/25 3:56 PM, David wrote:
> > Ah - just to confirm, you want "The Powerhouse <https://

> > standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse <http://

> standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse>>", the way you've
> > got the project, rather than "The Power House" (keeping space,
> caps, but
> > no hyphen)?
> >
> > I'm guessing the answer is "Yes", but the MW <https://

> > standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse <http://

> standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-buchan/the-powerhouse>> form looks very
> > odd to me in this context: this will be the first time (and only,
> so far
> > as I can tell) it appears this way (single word) for this book—
> there are
> > a couple of times when it's referred to as "this phrase" in the
> body of
> > the novel—so just double checking!
>

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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[David]

Thanks for your patience in working through that. We're now up and running. :)
https://github.com/dajare/john-buchan_the-powerhouse