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What do you owe to home when another country also has a claim on your life?
In A Man of Two Countries, Alice Harriman places a life divided between nations against the open country of the American frontier. Each country has a claim on one man. The central question is simple to ask but hard to answer: where does he belong?
Loyalty and ambition pull through this adventure. Ties to a homeland can sit uneasily beside duties to a friend, a promise or a new community. Far from settled towns, the frontier becomes a test of character, where the wish to get ahead meets the weight of belonging.
What you’ll discover
- Two countries, one life Explore the uneasy idea of belonging to two places, with each making its own claim.
- The open frontier Enter a world of open land, where distance from settled towns puts character to the test.
- Loyalties that pull apart Consider what happens when duty to home does not agree with other ties.
- The weight of ambition Follow the tension between wanting a different life and remaining faithful to old bonds.
- Adventure with hard questions Find an American frontier story that asks what a person owes to the places they call home.
Who will love it
Readers who love frontier fiction with a strong sense of place, loyal friendships and romance will enjoy this novel. It also suits those drawn to honest men who resist money and political scheming.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rescue begins a lasting feud
- Fort Benton takes hold of Danvers
- Danvers confronts cruelty as well as crime
- Three letters break a promised future
- Belonging becomes a choice to serve
- Winifred returns as an equal
- Private weaknesses feed public corruption
- Character is revealed through repeated choices
Who’s who
- Philip DanversA reserved young Englishman who joins the Mounted Police, then becomes a cattleman and state senator, and wants honest friendship, a home and a son.
- Robert BurroughsA shrewd trader who hates Danvers on sight, grows rich by smuggling and scheming, and wants to be a United States senator.
- Arthur LatimerA warm-hearted Southern lawyer who becomes a Montana judge and believes in honest government, though his marriage brings him pain.
- Winifred BlairThe girl Danvers rescues as a child, now a clear-eyed woman who cares for her brother and for the man she cannot answer.
- Eva ThornhillA beautiful officer's daughter who wants admiration, money and a larger world than Montana can offer.
- The doctorA bachelor physician from Fort Benton who loves his town and cares for his friends, steering them with humor and honesty.
- O'DwyerAn Irish trooper who worships Danvers and follows him from the barracks to the legislature, ready with a joke or a fist.
- William MooreOnce the wolfer Wild Cat Bill, now a smooth politician who runs Burroughs's campaign and measures every man by his price.
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A Man of Two Countries
by Alice Harriman · 1910
A fistfight on a Missouri steamboat sends a child into the river and starts a feud that lasts for years.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
A fistfight on a crowded steamboat sends a small girl into the churning Missouri River. The young Englishman who dives after her has only just joined the North West Mounted Police.
A Man of Two Countries at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 50 min3 h fast, 4 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 54,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1910by Alice Harriman
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fight on the Far West
The story opens at Bismarck, where Philip Danvers leads English recruits for the North West Mounted Police onto the steamer Far West. The heavyset frontiersman Robert Burroughs takes an instant dislike to the young Englishman. He ridicules his speech and tells the mate he intends to tug the lion's tail.
On board Danvers meets a little girl named Winifred, who travels with her brother, a freight hauler called Scar Faced Charlie. She shrinks from Burroughs, who is known along the river as Sweet Oil Bob. Danvers also meets a kind doctor and Arthur Latimer, a fair-haired lawyer who dreams of a seat on a state supreme court.
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Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Harriman, Alice. A Man of Two Countries. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-man-of-two-countries.
Harriman, A. (2026). A man of two countries. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-man-of-two-countries (Original work published 1910)
Harriman, Alice. A Man of Two Countries. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-man-of-two-countries.
@book{harriman2026man,
author = {Harriman, Alice},
title = {A Man of Two Countries},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-man-of-two-countries},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is A Man of Two Countries about?
It follows Philip Danvers, a young Englishman who joins the North West Mounted Police, later becomes an American cattleman and politician, and finds himself fighting an old enemy, Robert Burroughs, over honesty in Montana politics.
Who is Robert Burroughs in the novel?
Burroughs is a trader who meets Danvers on a steamboat and hates him at once. He builds a fortune, smuggles whiskey at Fort Macleod, marries Danvers's sister, and later pursues a seat in the United States Senate.
What is the Whoop Up Country?
It is the name the book gives to the country north of Montana, in what is now Alberta, where traders, trappers and whiskey smugglers operated across the international boundary.
The author
Alice Harriman
1861–1925 · American poet and publisher
Alice Harriman (1861–1925) was an American poet, novelist, and publisher. She lived in the United States and worked in publishing in the early twentieth century. She wrote the novel A Man of Two Countries. Her publishing work included issuing books by other writers.
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