The Red Axe

Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1860-1914), was a Scottish novelist. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1879. After some years of travel he became in 1886 minister of Penicuik. In that year he produced his first publication, Dulce Cor, a collection of verse. He eventually abandoned the Free Church ministry for novel-writing. The success of J. M. Barrie and the Kailyard school of writing had created a demand for stories in Lowland Scots when Mr Crockett published his successful story of The Stickit Minister in 1893. It was followed by a rapidly produced series of popular novels frequently featuring the history of Scotland or with his native Galloway. His works include The Men of the Moss Hags (1895), Cleg Kelly and the Grey Man (1896), The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion (1897), The Red Axe (1898), The Black Douglas (1899), Kit Kennedy (1899), Joan of the Sword Hand and Little Anna Mark (1900), Flower o' the Corn (1902) and Red Cap Tales: Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North (1904).