The Thirty-Nine Steps: The First James Bond

John Buchan called The Thirty-Nine Steps a "shocker," but it might be better described as the first modern thriller—barely a hundred pages long, published in 1915, and the template for James Bond, Jason Bourne, and virtually every chase-driven spy story that followed. The book opens with a stranger barging into the hero's London flat, pouring himself a stiff whiskey, and announcing: "You see, I happen at this moment to be dead." That happens two pages in. The pace never lets up.

The Man Who Wrote It While Ill

Buchan was one of the most accomplished figures ever to write popular fiction. Born in Perth in 1875 to a Free Church of Scotland minister, he studied classics at Glasgow University at sixteen, won a scholarship to Oxford, became president of the Oxford Union, and was already a published author making serious money. His friends included Raymond Asquith (son of the prime minister), Aubrey Herbert (twice offered the throne of Albania), and Rudyard Kipling. Everyone expected him to be a titan.