The Wild Olive by Basil King, published 1910. "A solitary horseman was wending his way across "the plain." Thus, in effect, the clever author of The Wild Olive begins his story. True, the horseman chances to be on foot, and the plain is a hillside opening in the forest that clothes the foothills of the Adirondacks. Otherwise it is the time-honoured formula, which the ingenuity of countless novelists has failed to improve. It is the apparition of the human figure on the otherwise lifeless landscape that is essential. It is an opening not to be resisted by any novel-reader whose interests are properly regulated. Behold the hero, a fugitive from justice, picturesquely dishevelled, running from his pursuers straight into the house of the man who had that very morning sentenced him to death. Behold the heroine, a proud, beautiful William Benjamin Basil King (1859-1928) was a Canadian-born clergyman who became a writer after retiring from the clergy. His novels and non-fiction were spiritually oriented.