John Buchan (Author of The 39 Steps) edit data John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life. At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction. On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four v John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life. At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities.

After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction. On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four volume history of the war, which was later abridged. Alongside his busy public life, Buchan wrote superb action novels, including the spy-catching adventures of Richard Hannay, whose exploits are described in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep. Apart from Hannay, Buchan created two other leading characters in Dickson McCunn, the shrewd retired grocer who appears in Huntingtower, Castle Gay, and The House of the Four Winds; and the lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who features in the The Power-House, John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River. From 1927 to 1935 Buchan was Conservative M.P.

for the Scottish Universities, and in 1935, on his appointment as Governor-General to Canada, he was made a peer, taking the title Baron Tweedsmuir. During these years he was still productive as a writer, and published notable historical biographies, such as Montrose, Sir Walter Scott, and Cromwell. When he died in Montreal in 1940, the world lost a fine statesman and story-teller. The John Buchan Society was founded in 1979 to encourage continuing interest in his life, works and legacy. Visit the website ( ) and follow the Society on Twitter ( ) and Facebook ( ). See also and Encyclopeadia Britannica Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. ...more John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | British statesman and author | Britannica.com John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir British statesman and author John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir British statesman and author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, (born Aug.

26, 1875, Perth , Perthshire, Scot.—died Feb. 11, 1940, Montreal ), statesman and writer best known for his swift-paced adventure stories. His 50 books, all written in his spare time while pursuing an active career in politics, diplomacy, and publishing, include many historical novels and biographies. John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1936. Kaiden-Kazanjian Studios Inc./Library and Archives Canada (C-090174) A clergyman’s son, Buchan was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford , where he began to publish fiction and history. He was called to the bar in 1901 and worked on the staff of the high commissioner for South Africa in that country (1901–03), forming a lifelong attachment to the cause of empire. Back in London, he became a director of Nelson’s, the publishers for whom he wrote what is often held to be the best of his adventure stories in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson , Prester John (1910); it is a vivid, prophetic account of an African rising.

During World War I Buchan held a staff appointment, and in 1917 he became director of information for the British government. His Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) was the most popular of his series of secret-service thrillers and the first of many to feature Richard Hannay. The 1935 film of The Thirty-Nine Steps , directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is often acclaimed a classic motion-picture thriller. After the war Buchan became assistant director of the British news agency Reuters and was member of Parliament for the Scottish universities, 1927–35. His biographies, Montrose (1928) and Sir Walter Scott (1932), are illuminated by compassionate understanding of Scottish history and literature . In 1935 he was raised to the peerage and appointed governor-general of Canada , which was the setting for his novel , Sick Heart River (1941; U.S. title, Mountain Meadow). His autobiography , Memory Hold-the-Door, was published in 1940.

Learn More in these related articles: Buchan John 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940 - AbeBooks Buchan John 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940 You Searched For: Results (1 - 19) of 19 Sort By BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton. 1919 (1919) Used Softcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton. 1919, 1919. FIRST CANADIAN EDITION. Crown octavo, pp.339; [1], imprint. Publisher's black card wraps with linen spine, lettered in gilt to upper cover (the later issue binding, preceded by hardcovers). A little stiffness, some toning, gilt dulled; very good indeed. An attractive example of the scarce third Richard Hannay adventure (following The Thirty Nine Steps and Greenmantle).

Set in the later years of World War I, Brigadier-General Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front to undertake a counter-espionage mission back home. This leads him back to the Campaign in Europe and a thrilling showdown at a mysterious castle in the Swiss Alps. Bookseller Inventory # 42270 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929 (1929) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929, 1929. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher's light blue cloth (also issued in green cloth) with title and trim printed in black. Minor wear and discolour to cloth. Very good. A dramatic series of adventures which take place against the backdrop of a small South American Republic that has fallen under the spell of a ruthless Dictator. The fifth novel to feature Buchan's most enduring character, the adventurous government agent (Sir) Richard Hannay.

In this episode, attention shifts to Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay's old ally who previously appeared in the 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Greenmantle'. Blanchard. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Bookseller Inventory # 36267 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922. (1922) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922., 1922. FIRST EDITION. 8vo., pp. 320. Publisher's mid-blue cloth, titled and ruled in dark blue. Printed map endpapers. Moderate wear to cloth, spine a shade sunned, neat name on flyleaf. Shows well. The first Dickson McCunn novel.

Splendid stuff, stuffed to the gills with white lipped determination, cheeky scots urchins, a keen overview of the world's contemporary social and political climate, tweed, fruit cake, and that staple of all great adventure; surly, evil, limping foreigners. Blanchard A53. Bookseller Inventory # 33359 BUCHAN, John [1st Baron Tweedsmuir] (1875-1940). Published by Toronto, ON: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1936. (1936) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Toronto, ON: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1936., 1936. First Canadian Edition. Octavo. pp. xiii, 402. With 10 photographic plates including frontispiece, and 6 maps. Maps of the Western and Eastern Fronts to end-papers. In publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine. With original pictorial dust jacket showing soldiers 'going over the top'. Red titles to spine and front cover.

Some browning to jacket edges and sunning to spine; chips to jacket spine head and very slightly to corners. Very good overall. A single-volume abridgement of Buchan's four-volume 'History of the great War.'. Bookseller Inventory # 45398 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, n.d. [1924]. (1924) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, n.d. [1924]., 1924. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.319. In publisher's blue cloth with black titles to spine and upper board. Light shelf-wear, otherwise a near-fine copy. The fourth Richard Hannay adventure, following 'The Thirty Nine Steps', 'Greenmantle', and 'Mr Standfast'. Blanchard A63. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4.

Bookseller Inventory # 46549 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1941. (1941) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1941., 1941. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher's green cloth with bright gilt titles to spine, slight lean, edges foxed; in its original bright dustwrapper frayed along extremities and chipped, spine very lightly faded. Shows well. The final novel from the master of adventure stories; Sir Edward Leithen travels deep into the Canadian Arctic to investigate a man's mysterious disappearance. It is one of Buchan's most spiritual novels, whose protaganist confronts death and redemption, and although not in the main Richard Hannay cannon, this title is nevertheless notable for the re-appearance of the famous government agent.

Published posthumously, this was the perfect swansong to Buchan's career as the era's leading thriller writer, and received a glowing review from the new master, Graham Greene. Blanchard [A132]. Bookseller Inventory # 32708 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930 (1930) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930, 1930. Thriller. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.320. Publisher's green cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Both book and jacket are used; some toning to edges, gummed label to flyleaf, jacket worn with several chips, losses and tears.

Priced accordingly The second 'shocker' to feature Dickson McCunn, the unlikliest of Buchan's heroes; a middle-aged owner of a prominent Glasgow grocery firm who has just sold his business and is seeking other activities, who finds himself embroiled in unsought adventure, intrigue and murder. Blanchard. Bookseller Inventory # 45989 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935 (1935) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935, 1935. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.318. Elegantly hand-bound in half green oasis morocco leather, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands, original gilt-monogrammed covers. Faint edge-spotting else a fine copy in an attractive recent leather binding.

The final 'shocker' to feature Dickson McCunn, the unlikliest of Buchan's heroes; a middle-aged owner of a prominent Glasgow grocery firm who has just sold his business and is seeking other activities, who finds himself embroiled in unsought adventure, intrigue and murder. Blanchard. Bookseller Inventory # 42656 BUCHAN, John [1st Baron Tweedsmuir] (1875-1940). Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, [n.d. 1930] (1930) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, [n.d. 1930], 1930. First Hannay Omnibus Edition. Octavo. pp. x, 1204. In publisher's oatmeal cloth with black and red titles to spine and upper board. With original pictorial dust jacket featuring a man in green eastern dress. Small black ink inscription to front free end-paper. Jacket browned and worn to edges. Top 1cm of jacket spine lost. Bright and un-sunned; a very good copy overall.

Bookseller Inventory # 45395 BUCHAN, John (1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1875-1940) Published by London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929 (1929) Used Hardcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929, 1929. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.405 + [8]. advertisements. Elegantly hand-bound in half green oasis morocco leather, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands, cloth sides. Faint edge-spotting else a fine copy in an attractive recent leather binding. A dramatic series of adventures which take place against the backdrop of a small South American Republic that has fallen under the spell of a ruthless Dictator. The fifth novel to feature Buchan's most enduring character, the adventurous government agent (Sir) Richard Hannay. In this episode, attention shifts to Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay's old ally who previously appeared in the 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Greenmantle'.

Buchan's famous adventurer was one of the fore-runners to James Bond; [author Ian Fleming] "was certainly influenced by no-nonsense British fictional characters such as Richard Hannay" [Gilbert, p.616]. Blanchard. See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Bookseller Inventory # 42657 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London 1912., 1912. A curious collection of strange tales from the acclaimed thriller writer and creator of gentleman spy Richard Hannay. FIRST EDITION, COLONIAL ISSUE. Octavo; pp.324 + 4 (ads). Publisher's slate grey cloth titled in gilt with silver moon to spine and similar monogram motif to upper. Cloth is clean and bright, with some moderate, acceptable edgewear, discreet ownername to pastedown. This is the uncommon Colonial edition, which did not contain the 64-page catalogue after the integral adverts. The binding matches the home market version except for the publisher's large monogram stamp to the rear board stating "Only for circulation in India and British Colonies".

This particulalr copy was sold in Australia and bears a Sydney booksellers' ticket. See Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Bleiler; Checklist of Fantastic Literature [324]. Bookseller Inventory # 40252 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929, 1929. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Publisher's light blue cloth (also issued in green cloth) with title and trim printed in black. Minor wear to cloth.A near fine copy in a very good bright and sharp dustwrapper with minor soiling and a shallow chip of loss to the head of the spine not aftecting text. Minor spotting to page edges, internally clean. A handsome copy. A dramatic series of adventures which take place against the backdrop of a small South American Republic that has fallen under the spell of a ruthless Dictator. The fifth novel to feature Buchan's most enduring character, the adventurous government agent (Sir) Richard Hannay. In this episode, attention shifts to Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay's old ally who previously appeared in the 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Greenmantle'. Blanchard.

See also Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Bookseller Inventory # 38754 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933., 1933. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. pp. 383. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles in pictorial dust-jacket. Book appears unread, with some faint marking to the edges. The jacket shows light use; some nicks to the spine ends and one short tear to the rear joint. A bright and attractive copy of one of Buchan's more opaque intelligence/espionage novels. The story of a disgraced former convict who is liberated just before the hostilities and seeks to redeem himself by enlisting in the Secret Service. His undercover work takes him behind enemy lines and after the war he remains a shadowy figure attempting to prevent the assassination of the German Chancellor. Another thrilling adventure from the master story-teller and author of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'. Bookseller Inventory # 40558 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1921-22., 1921. First Revised Edition.

Octavo, four volumes, pp. xv, 552, pp. ix, 578, pp. xi, 603, pp. xi, 528. Bound in recent half blue calf, with the original blue cloth boards retained, gilt titles and raised bands to spine. Fore and tail edges uncut. With 78 tipped in maps, many folding. Some toning to the textblocks at the prelims, and to the edges. All maps present and intact. Cloth shows some light wear and marking. A very good set presented in a smart modern binding. Buchan's history of the Great War was originally published between 1915 and 1919 in twenty four volumes. He decided to revise and rewrite his work in order to correct any errors made and to give a smoother perspective than his original version presented due to the immediacy of that work to the events reported therein. Bookseller Inventory # 45394 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1912., 1912. First Edition, SIGNED dedication to: 'C.D.

Carpenter / from / John Buchan' and dated 'May 1, 1912' in ink to first free end paper. 8vo; pp.324 + 4 (ads) + 64-page catalogue dated 12/11. A sound and tight copy in publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper. Light foxing to fore edge and to a couple of pages; inner hinges starting. Gilt to spine rubbed with head and foot at some point glued to stop wear, although this is not visible. A lovely copy made all the more attractive by the neat signed inscription. A curious collection of strange tales from the acclaimed thriller writer and creator of gentleman spy Richard Hannay. See Haining; Crime Fiction p193-4. Bleiler; Checklist of Fantastic Literature [324].

Bookseller Inventory # 32709 John Buchan John Buchan (1875-1940) - First Baron Tweedsmuir of Enfield Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet, and novelist, whose most famous thriller was The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), his 27th book, which has been filmed several times. Alfred Hitchcock's film version of the story from 1935 is ranked as one of the director's best achievemets. In addition to his large body of nonfiction, John Buchan published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. "Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure." John Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland, the eldest son of Rev. John Buchan and Helen (n�e Masterton) Buchan. In 1876 the family moved to Pathhead, Fife, a small mining town, and then to Glasgow.

After attending Hutcheson's Grammar School, Buchan studied at the University of Glasgow and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he had an outstanding career, winning the Stanhope Essay Prize in 1897 and the Newdigate Prize in the following year. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa, Lord Milner. Prester John (1910), set in the years after the Anglo-Boer War and written for an adolescent male audience, was partly based on his South African experiences. The title of the book refers to the fifteenth-century legend of purpoted Christian priest and king of the Ethiopians. Returning to London in 1903, Buchan specialized in tax law and continued to write prolifically, both fiction and nonfiction. He joined in 1906 the publisher Thomas Nelson and Sons, revitalized publication of pocket editions of great literature, and virtually edited The Spectator. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor; they had three sons and one daughter. After the outbreak of WWI, Buchan tried to enlist but was refused because of an ulcer.

Before being able to join the army, he worked as a special correspondent for The Times on the Western Front. The official War Propaganda Bureau commissioned him to write accounts of major battles and various propaganda booklets. Buchan became the master of propaganda in journalism, fiction and history. All his best-selling thrillers from this period dealt with episodes in the war, its outbreak, the Russian capture of the Turkish citadel of Erzurum, and the final German offencives. In 1916-17 Buchan served on the Headquarters Staff of the British Army in France as temporary Lieutenant Colonel. When Lloyd George was appointed Prime Minister, Buchan was made director of the Department of Information in February 1917, charged with coordinating all British propagada. Buchan's unpaid part-time adviser was Roderick Jones, the chief executive of Reuters news agency; Buchan wanted true stories and encouraged the film-makers towards authenticity. For a short time Buchan served as the Director of Intelligence, a brief interlude in his career of which he did not much talk. After the war Buchan became a director of the news agency Reuters.

He was a strong supporter of the League of Nations, he stressed the importance of close Anglo-American relations, and he was concerned by the Bolshevik regime in Russia. His first visit to America he made in 1924. From 1927 to 1935 Buchan was a Conservative member of parliament for the Scottish universities. He held a number of important government posts, serving among others as Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1933-34). In 1935 he was created the first Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield and appointed Governor General of Canada. As European war approached, he served as a trusted advisor to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was Buchan's duty to sign Canada's declaration of war against Germany.

"This is the third war I have been in," he said to an old friend, "and no-one could hate the horrible thing more than I do." To Baron Macmillan, who was the first Minister of Information, he gave the advice that no direct propaganda to America and the news should follow the Reuter plan and be as objective as possible." Buchan died in office in Montreal, Canada, on February 11, 1940, after suffering a stroke. Buchan began his literary career in the 1890s. His first novel, Sir Quixote of the Moors (1895), came out while he was still a student at Brasenose College, Oxford. It was followed by such works as Scholar-Gipsies (1896) and History of Brasenose (1898). At Oxford Buchan wrote five books, and before he was twenty-five he had published eight books. However, he did not devote himself entirely to writing. After a sojourn in South Africa, Buchan became a dedicated supporter of Britain's imperialism, and viewed some of his earlier literary endeavours rather uncomfortable.

Grey Weather (1899), his first collection of tales and sketches, and The Watcher by the Treshold (1902), included some tacitly pagan stories. While ill in bed in 1914, during the first months of the war, Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps, which introduced the spy-catcher Richard Hannay, who was modelled after a young Army officer named Edmund Ironside, later Field-Marshal Lord Ironside of Archangel. Hannay had all the qualities of a hero, who could defend the English way of life against foreign thread – he is resourceful, courageous, "solid and respectable citizen" devoted to his own country – but he was not an calculating agent, more of an innocent abroad. And he had no taste for violence and he was not interested in sex like James Bond. In the story Hannay, a 37-year-old wealthy Scot, meets an American journalist, named Scudder, who tells of an international assassination plan. Scudder is murdered, and Hannay realizes that he is the prime suspect. He flees to Scotland, and hides there from the police and the foreign conspirators and other anarchists.

Hannay guesses that Scudders's cryptic note ("Thirty-nine steps – I counted them – High tide 10:17 p.m.) refers to the location of the anarchists' beach house. The conspirators are arrested. A consistent theme in Buchan's thrillers was that nothing is as it seems – behind a respectable facade, there is a hidden agenda and deeply buries secrets, threatening the order of modern society. Or as he wrote in The Power House (1916): "You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from Barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. ..." Buchan had supported Zionist movement, but anti-Jewish clich�s occur in his books frequently. By the end of WWI, Buchan had acquired a bitter taste of war, although war and adventure are still the different sides of the same coin in The Thirty-Nine Steps. His brother Alastair and best friend Tommy Nelson were killed in 1917. These for Remembrance (1919) commemorated six close friends killed in the war.

Richard Hannay was portrayed again in Greenmantle (1916), Buchan's tenth novel, where the hero plays a spy and stops the Germans from using an Islamic prophet for their own ends. This time Hannay's adventures take him through Germany and the Balkans to Constantinople and finally to the Near East front of World War I. Another series character, Sandy Arbuthnot, partly modelled after T.E. Lawrence and the Honourable Aubrey Herbert, second son of the Earl of Carnarvon, tackle with Hannay and Sir Archibald Roylance a gang of international criminals in The Three Hostages (1924). Sandy was the second of Lord Clanroyden; he was a "blood-brother to every kind of Albanian bandit," and "he used to take hand in Turkish politics, and got a huge reputation . . ." Herbert also travelled widely, he had learned fluent Turkish in Constantinople, and he had an Albanian bodyguard called Kiazim. Herbert's comment on Sandy Arbuthnot was "He brings in my nerves all right, doesn't he?" Aubrey Herbert remained the only real-life model that Buchan acknowledged for Sandy.

Lawrence's circle of literary acquaintances included Buchan, who helped him to serve under a pseudonym in the Royal Air Force, Ezra Pound, Robert Graves, who became a close friend, George Bernard Shaw, and his wife Charlotte. Buchan claimed in a 1936 speech to have first met Lawrence, "a shabby little second-lieutenant in a badly fitting uniform", in 1915, but in his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door (1940) he dated the meeting in the 1920s. Although Hannay appeared in Buchan's later novels, too, his career as an adventurer ends in this story – he has married Mary Lamington from Mr Standfast (1919), has a son, is happy with his life as lord of Fosse Manor, and he is first reluctant to assist his former colleagues.

"It was jolly to see the world coming to life againg," Hannay thinks in the beginning of the story, "and to remember that this patch of England was my own, and all these wild things, so to speak, members of my little household." With his thrillers, Buchan established a certain type of hero, who did not have as hard-boiled mentality as the American adventurer detectives, and certain plot patterns, that were adopted by such writers as H.C. McNeile, Edgar Wallace , and Geoffrey Household . The lawyer and politician Edward Leithen, perhaps the most autobiographical of Buchan's heroes, was the central character in three novels, starting from The Power House, and continuing in The Dancing Floor (1926), which returned again in the theme of paganism, The Gap in the Curtain (1932), and Sick Heart River (1941). The Gap in the Curtain was a supernatural story, in which the guests at a country house party are enabled by an unconventional scientist to catch a glimpse of an issue of the Times dated a year ahead. Sir Edward finds himself in the middle of an old struggle between faith and doubt.

Dickson McGunn, a respectable Glaskow grocer, was featured in Huntingtower (1922), Castle Gay (1930), and The House of the Four Winds (1935). Witch Wood (1927), a historical novel set in 17th-century Scotland, told about stern Scottish Protestants and devil worship. All his spare time Buchan devoted to writing. His chief recretional outlets were riding, climbing, and walking. On of Buchan's most loved books is John Macnab (1925), which tells of three bored gentlemen of the establishment, a lawyer, banker, and Tory Cabinet Minister, who form a poaching trinity under their invented "a nom de guerre", John Macnab. Buchan's other works include the 24-volume Nelson's History of the War (1915-19), biographies of Montrose (1913, 1928), Walter Scott (1932), Oliver Cromwell (1934), and Augustus (1937). Buchan's autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door was published in North America under the title Pilgrim's Way.

Buchan was one of the favorite writers of Alfred Hitchcock , who had toyed with the idea of filming Greenmantle. Often in Hitchcock's films an innocent man is chased by the police and the villains. In one scene Hannay says: "I know what it is to feel lonely and helpless and to have the whole world against me, and those are things that no men or women ought to feel." The basic outline of the story was thoroughly worked over in the screen version. At the end Hitchcock parallels handcuffs with a suggestion of marriage. The sequence in which Hannay was first protected and then betrayed by a jealous Highland crofter, have no counterpart in the book at all. The 39 Steps was crucial for Hitchcock's career – it became an international success and brought him to the attention of the American producer David O. Selznick, with whom he would cooperate in Rebecca (1940) and other productions. Anna Masterton Buchan (1877-1948), Buchan's sister, took the pseudonym O.

Douglas for her first book, Olivia in India: The Adventures of a Chota Miss Sahib (1913), saying: "I did not want to use my name as (in my opinion) John had given lustre to the name of Buchan which any literary efforts of mine would not be likely to add to, so I called myself 'O. Douglas'." George O'Brien wrote in Mystery & Suspense Writers (1998): "Victor Maskell, the protagonist modeled on Sir Anthony Blunt in John Banville's the Untouchable (1997), may regard Buchan as ridiculously old-fashioned.

But the kind of material which his thrillers were first to bring into focus – the conspiratorial shadow cast by contemporary history, the challenge to integrity and cohesion, the bleak vicissitudes of international power play – continue their complex existence in the genre, as shown in not only Kumari (1955) and Helen All Alone (1961) by Buchan's son, William, but also in Heart's Journey in Winter (1995) and High Latitudes: A Romance (1996), by James Buchan, John Buchan's grandson." (Mystery & Suspense Writers, vol. 1, ed. by Robin W. Winks, 1998) For further reading: Unforgettable, Unforgotten by Anna Buchan (1945); John Buchan by His Wife and Friends by Lady Susan Tweedsmuir (1947); Mr. Buchan, Writer by Arthur C.

Turner (1949); Clubland Heroes by Richard Usborne (1953); John Buchan: A Biography by Janet Adam Smith (1965); The Interpreter's House by David Daniell (1975); John Buchan and His World by Janet Adam Smith (1979); John Buchan: A Memoir by William Buchan (1982); John Buchan (1875-1940) and the Idea of Empire by Juanita Kruse (1989); A Buchan Companion by Paul Webb (1994); St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, ed.

by David Pringle (1998, see entry by Brian Stableford); John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier by Andrew Lownie (2003); John Buchan: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Kate Macdonald (2009); Modern John Buchan: A Critical Introduction by Nathan Waddell (2009); John Buchan and the Idea of Modernity, edited by Kate Macdonald and Nathan Waddell (2013) Selected works: Essays and Apothegms of Francis Lord Bacon, 1894 (ed.) Sir Quixote of the Moors, 1895 Scholar-Gipsies, 1896 ajbhope.net - John Buchan-Lord Tweedsmuir John Buchan – First Baron Tweedsmuir, GCMG, GCVO, CH, PC. John Buchan was born in Perth Scotland in 1875. He had an interesting and very varied life as a diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet, Member of Parliament, and novelist. It is perhaps the last of these for which he is best known and for his novel The thirty-nine steps.

He became a peer in 1935 as Lord Tweedsmuir on his appointment as Governor General of Canada. If you have any views on why John Buchan chose Tweedsmuir as his title see the Section 6 - Title of Tweedsmuir page on Contents List below. The Half-Hearted : John Buchan : 9781603123358 The Half-Hearted Try AbeBooks Description John Buchan, the first Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish novelist best known for his novel "The Thirty-Nine Steps." The book was produced as a film by Alfred Hitchcock; it was the first of five books featuring the character of Richard Hannay. John Buchan was also a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. He studied at the University of Glasgow and at Brasenose College, Oxford, winning the Newdigate prize for poetry. His friends at Oxford included Hilaire Belloc, Raymond Asquith, and Aubrey Herbert. Beginning with "Prester John," he wrote thirty novels and seven collections of short stories.

"The Half-Hearted" is a novel of "The Great Game" -- that is, the conflict between the expanding British Raj in India, reaching up into Afghanistan, and the forces of Czarist Russia, expanding toward the British from the north. The book's protagonist, Lewis Haystoun, is persuaded to use his academic knowledge of Indian frontier to help prevent a Russian invasion. The effort transforms his character, and ultimately saves India -- but not without tragic cost.

show more Product details 149.86 x 226.06 x 17.78mm | 453.59g Publication date John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 204,344pages on His Excellency the Right Honourable the Lord Tweedsmuir GCMG GCVO CH PC</span></span> 15th Governor General of Canada In office 2 November 1935 – 11 February 1940 Monarch 11 February 1940(1940-02-11) (aged 64) Montreal, Quebec Free Church of Scotland , United Free Church of Scotland , Church of Scotland Signature John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist , historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.

After a brief legal career Buchan simultaneously began both his writing career and his political and diplomatic career, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in Southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in the First World War . Once he was back in civilian life Buchan was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction . In 1935 he was appointed Governor General of Canada by King George V , on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada Richard Bennett , to replace the Earl of Bessborough . He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan proved to be enthusiastic about literacy, as well as the evolution of Canadian culture , and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom. Contents Edit Buchan was the first child of John Buchan— a Free Church of Scotland minister— and Helen Jane Buchan. Born in Perth, [1] Buchan was brought up in Kirkcaldy , Fife, and spent many summer holidays with his grandparents in Broughton , in the Scottish Borders .

There he developed a love of walking, as well as for the local scenery and wildlife, which often featured in his novels; the name of a protagonist in several of Buchan's books— Sir Edward Leithen — is borrowed from the Leithen Water , a tributary of the River Tweed . After attending Hutchesons' Grammar School , Buchan was awarded a scholarship to the University of Glasgow at age 17, where he studied classics, wrote poetry, and became a published author. With a junior Hulme scholarship, he moved on in 1895 to study Literae Humaniores (the Oxonian term for the Classics) at Brasenose College, Oxford , [2] where he befriended a number of individuals, including Hilaire Belloc , Raymond Asquith , and Aubrey Herbert . Buchan won both the Stanhope essay prize , in 1897, and the Newdigate Prize for poetry the following year, [2] as well as being elected as the president of the Oxford Union and having six of his works published.

[3] It was at around the time of his graduation from Oxford that Buchan had his first portrait painted, done in 1900 by a young Sholto Johnstone Douglas . [4] Life as an author and politician Edit Buchan entered into a career in diplomacy and government after graduating from Oxford, becoming the private secretary to Alfred Milner , who was then the High Commissioner for Southern Africa , Governor of Cape Colony , and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, putting Buchan in what came to be known as Milner's Kindergarten . He also gained an acquaintance with a country that would feature prominently in his writing, which he resumed upon his return to London, at the same time entering into a partnership in the Thomas Nelson & Son publishing company and becoming editor of The Spectator . [5] Buchan also read for and was called to the bar in 1901, [6] though he did not practise as a lawyer, [7] and on 15 July 1907 married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor — daughter of Norman Grosvenor and a cousin of the Duke of Westminster .

Together, Buchan and his wife had four children, Alice, John , William , and Alastair , two of whom would spend most of their lives in Canada. [6] John Buchan, circa 1936 Buchan wrote Prester John in 1910, the first of his adventure novels set in South Africa, and the following year he suffered from duodenal ulcers , which also inspired one of his characters in later books. At the same time, Buchan ventured into the political arena, and ran as a Unionist candidate in a Scottish Borders constituency; he supported free trade, women's suffrage , national insurance, and curtailing the powers of the House of Lords, [8] though he did also oppose the welfare reforms of the Liberal Party , and what he considered to be the "class hatred" fostered by demagogic Liberals such as David Lloyd George . [9] With the outbreak of the First World War , Buchan went to write for the British War Propaganda Bureau and worked as a correspondent in France for The Times.

He continued to write fiction, and in 1915 published his most famous work, The Thirty-Nine Steps , a spy-thriller set just prior to World War I. The novel featured Buchan's oft used hero, Richard Hannay , whose character was based on Edmund Ironside , a friend of Buchan from his days in South Africa. A sequel, Greenmantle , came the following year. Buchan then enlisted in the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps , where he wrote speeches and communiqués for Sir Douglas Haig . Recognised for his abilities, Buchan was appointed as the Director of Information in 1917, under the Lord Beaverbrook [6] — a job that Buchan said was "the toughest job I ever took on" [10] — and also assisted Charles Masterman in publishing a monthly magazine that detailed the history of the war, the first edition appearing in February 1915 (and later published in 24 volumes as Nelson's History of the War). It was difficult, given his close connections to many of Britain's military leaders, for Buchan to be critical of the British Army's conduct during the conflict.

[11] Following the close of the war, Buchan turned his attention to writing on historical subjects, along with his usual thrillers and novels. By the mid-1920s, he was living in Elsfield and had become president of the Scottish Historical Society and a trustee of the National Library of Scotland , [6] and he also maintained ties with various universities. Robert Graves , who lived in nearby Islip , mentioned his being recommended by Buchan for a lecturing position at the newly founded Cairo University and, in a 1927 by-election , Buchan was elected as the Unionist Party Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities. Politically, he was of the Unionist-Nationalist tradition, believing in Scotland's promotion as a nation within the British Empire . Buchan remarked in a speech to parliament: "I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist. If it could be proved that a Scottish parliament were desirable...

Scotsmen should support it." [12] The effects of the Great Depression in Scotland, and the subsequent high emigration from that country, also led Buchan to reflect in the same speech: "We do not want to be like the Greeks, powerful and prosperous wherever we settle, but with a dead Greece behind us," [13] and he found himself profoundly affected by John Morley 's Life of Gladstone, which Buchan read in the early months of the Second World War . He believed that Gladstone had taught people to combat materialism , complacency, and authoritarianism; Buchan later wrote to Herbert Fisher , Stair Gillon , and Gilbert Murray that he was "becoming a Gladstonian Liberal." [14] After the United Free Church of Scotland joined in 1929 with the Church of Scotland, Buchan remained an active elder of St. Columba's Church in London, as well as of the Oxford Presbyterian parish. In 1933 and 1934, Buchan was further appointed as the King George V's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland .

Beginning in 1930, Buchan aligned himself with Zionism and the related Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group . [15] In recognition of his contributions to literature and education, on 1 January 1932, Buchan was granted the personal gift of the sovereign of induction into the Order of the Companions of Honour . [16] In 1935, Buchan's literary work was adapted to the cinematic theatre with the completion of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, though with Buchan's story much altered. This came in the same year that Buchan was honoured with appointment to the Order of St. Michael and St. George on 23 May, [17] as well as being elevated to the peerage, when he was entitled by King George V as Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in the County of Oxford on 1 June.

[18] This had been done in preparation for Buchan's appointment as Canada's governor general; when consulted by Canadian prime minister Richard Bennett about the appointment, the Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition , William Lyon Mackenzie King, had recommended that the King allow Buchan to serve as viceroy as a commoner, [19] but George V insisted that he be represented by a peer. Buchan's name had been earlier put forward by Mackenzie King to George V as a candidate for the governor generalcy: Buchan and his wife had been guests of Mackenzie King's at his estate, Kingsmere , in 1924, and Mackenzie King, who at that time was prime minister, was impressed with Buchan, stating, "I know no man I would rather have as a friend, a beautiful, noble soul, kindly & generous in thought & word & act, informed as few men in this world have ever been, modest, humble, true, man after God's own heart." One evening in the following year, the Prime Minister mentioned to Governor General the Lord Byng of Vimy that Buchan would be a suitable successor to Byng, with which the Governor General agreed, the two being friends.

Word of this reached the British Cabinet, and Buchan was approached, but he was reluctant to take the posting; Byng had been writing to Buchan about the constitutional dispute that took place in June 1926 and spoke disparagingly of Mackenzie King. [20] Governor General of Canada Lord Tweedsmuir in Native headdress , 1937 It was announced from the Canadian prime minister's office on 10 August 1935 that the King had approved Bennett's recommendation of Buchan as the viceregal representative by commission under the royal sign-manual and signet . Buchan then departed for Canada and was sworn in as the country's governor general in a ceremony on 2 November 1935 in the salon rouge of the parliament buildings of Quebec . Buchan was the first viceroy of Canada appointed since the enactment of the Statute of Westminster on 11 December 1931 and was thus the first to have been decided on solely by the monarch of Canada in his Canadian council.

Buchan continued writing during his time as governor general, but he also thereafter took his position as viceroy seriously and from the outset made it his goal to travel the length and breadth of Canada, including, for the first time for a governor general, [3] the Arctic regions ; he said of his job: "a Governor General is in a unique position for it is his duty to know the whole of Canada and all the various types of her people." Buchan also encouraged a distinct Canadian identity and national unity, despite the ongoing Great Depression and the difficulty which it caused for the population .

[6] Not all Canadians shared Buchan's views; he raised the ire of imperialists when he said in Montreal in 1937: "a Canadian's first loyalty is not to the British Commonwealth of Nations, but to Canada and Canada's King," [21] a statement that the Montreal Gazette dubbed as "disloyal." [22] Buchan maintained and recited his idea that ethnic groups "should retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character," and "the strongest nations are those that are made up of different racial elements." [23] The following year proved to be a tumultuous one for the monarchy that Buchan represented. In late January, George V died, and his eldest son, the popular Prince Edward , succeeded to the throne as Edward VIII, while Rideau Hall — the royal and viceroyal residence in Ottawa— was decked in black crepe and all formal entertaining was cancelled during the official period of mourning . As the year unfolded, it became evident that the new king planned to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson , which caused much discontentment throughout the Dominions .

Buchan conveyed to Buckingham Palace and British prime minister Stanley Baldwin Canadians' deep affection for the King, but also the outrage to Canadian religious feelings, both Catholic and Protestant, that would occur if Edward married Simpson. [24] By 11 December, King Edward had abdicated in favour of his younger brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York , who was thereafter known as George VI. In order for the line of succession for Canada to remain parallel to those of the other Dominions, Buchan, as Governor-in-Council , gave the government's consent to the British legislation formalising the abdication , and ratified this with finality when he granted Royal Assent to the Canadian Succession to the Throne Act in 1937 . [25] Upon receiving news from Mackenzie King of Edward's decision to abdicate, Tweedsmuir commented that, in his year in Canada as governor general, he had represented three kings. [26] In May and June 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured the country from coast to coast and paid a state visit to the United States on behalf of Canada.

The royal tour had been conceived by Buchan before their coronation in 1937; according to the official event historian, Gustave Lanctot , the idea "probably grew out of the knowledge that as his coming Coronation, George VI was to assume the additional title of King of Canada," and Buchan desired to demonstrate with living example— through Canadians seeing "their King performing royal functions, supported by his Canadian ministers "— the fact of Canada's status as an independent kingdom. [27] Buchan put great effort into securing a positive response to the invitation sent to King George in May 1937; after more than a year without a reply, in June 1938 Buchan headed to the United Kingdom for personal holidays, but also to procure a decision on the possible royal tour. From his home near Oxford, Buchan wrote to Mackenzie King: "The important question for me is, of course, the King's visit to Canada." After a period of convalescence at Ruthin Castle , Buchan, in October, sailed back to Canada with a secured commitment that the royal couple would tour the country.

Though he had been a significant contributor to the organisation of the trip, Buchan retired to Rideau Hall for the duration of the royal tour; Buchan expressed the view that while the King of Canada was present, "I cease to exist as Viceroy, and retain only a shadowy legal existence as Governor-General in Council." [27] In Canada itself, the royal couple took part in public events such as the opening of the Lions Gate Bridge in May 1939. Another factor behind the tour was public relations: the presence of the royal couple in Canada and the United States, was calculated to shore up sympathy for Britain in anticipation of hostilities with Germany . Buchan's experiences during the First World War made him averse to conflict, he tried to help prevent another war in coordination with United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mackenzie King. Still, Buchan authorised Canada's declaration of war against Germany in September, shortly after the British declaration of war and with the consent of King George; and, thereafter, issued orders of deployment for Canadian soldiers, airmen, and seamen as the titular commander-in-chief of the Canadian armed forces .

These duties would not burden Buchan for long, as, on 6 February 1940, he suffered a severe head injury when he fell during a stroke at Rideau Hall. Two surgeries by Doctor Wilder Penfield of the Montreal Neurological Institute were insufficient to save him, and his death on 11 February was eulogised on the radio by Mackenzie King: "In the passing of His Excellency, the people of Canada have lost one of the greatest and most revered of their Governors General, and a friend who, from the day of his arrival in this country, dedicated his life to their service." The Governor General had formed a strong bond with his prime minister, even if it may have been built more on political admiration than personal friendship; while Mackenzie King appreciated his "sterling rectitude and disinterested purpose," [3] despite being wary of Buchan's vices (such as his penchant for titles), After lying in state in the Senate chamber on Parliament Hill , the state funeral for Buchan was held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Ottawa. Buchan's ashes were returned to the UK aboard the cruiser HMS Orion for final burial at Elsfield , his family estate in Oxfordshire.

Legacy Edit In his last years, Buchan, amongst other works, wrote an autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door , as well as works on the history and his views of Canada. He and Baroness Tweedsmuir together established the first proper library at Rideau Hall, and, with his wife's encouragement, Buchan founded the Governor General's Literary Awards , which remain Canada's premier award for literature. [6] Buchan's 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories, and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus , and Oliver Cromwell . Buchan was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of the Marquess of Montrose , but the most famous of his books were the spy thrillers, and it is for these that he is now best remembered. The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts the questions of the meaning of life in the Canadian wilderness.

The insightful quotation, "It's a great life, if you don't weaken," is famously attributed to Buchan, [28] as is, "No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated." [29] Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in British Columbia, now divided into Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park and Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area , was created in 1938 to commemorate Buchan's 1937 visit to the Rainbow Range and other nearby areas by horseback and floatplane. In the foreword to a booklet published to commemorate his visit, he wrote, "I have now travelled over most of Canada and have seen many wonderful things, but I have seen nothing more beautiful and more wonderful than the great park which British Columbia has done me the honour to call by my name". [30] Titles, styles and honours John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir - Wikidata John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir British politician John Buchan, 1.

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Question: Novelist John Buchan's title was first Baron . . . what?
Answer: Tweedsmuir