John Buchan was born on 26 August 1875 in Perth, Scotland. The eldest
son of a Free Church of Scotland minister (also named John) and his wife, Helen Jane
Masterton, Buchan gained considerable fame as a creative writer and historian. He
also devoted major portions of his career to the law, publishing, and government.
For 12 years beginning in 1876, Buchan lived at Pathhead, on the east
coast of Scotland, where his father served as minister at the West Church. In
1888, the family moved to Glasgow, where Buchan’s father began
leading the congregation of the John Knox Free Church in the Gorbals – a
working-class neighbourhood south of the Clyde. Buchan studied at Hutchesons’ Grammar
School until 1892, at which time he won a John Clark £30 bursary to
enter Glasgow University.
“I suppose I was a natural story-teller” (Memory, 193),
Buchan reflected towards the end of his life. His first concerted literary efforts
began during his years at Glasgow. Balancing academic pursuits with personal writing
projects, Buchan made time to contribute numerous articles and stories to
periodicals, including Blackwood’s, Macmillan’s, and the
Gentleman’s Magazine (which printed his first article,
“Angling in Still Waters,” in August 1893). During this period, Buchan
also edited Francis Bacon’s Essays and Apothegms
(1894) and wrote his first novel, Sir Quixote of
the Moors (1895). Buchan dedicated the latter to Gilbert
Murray (1866-1957), a Glasgow professor who had a profound influence on his knowledge
of Classical literature and philosophy.
In January 1895, Buchan gained a Junior Hulme scholarship to Brasenose
College, University of Oxford. He therefore left Glasgow without taking a degree, and
began his Oxford studies in fall 1895. Buchan’s desire to study at
Brasenose arose to a large degree from his interest in [Walter
Pater](#WPA) (1839-1894), a fellow of that college who had passed away in
1894. Buchan had written a review of his Greek
Studies for the Glasgow University Magazine, and
later recalled of Pater, “I was glad to go to a college where he had lectured on
Plato, and which was full of his friends” (Memory,
46).
At Oxford, Buchan excelled in his studies. In 1897, he was awarded the
Stanhope Prize for his essay on [Sir Walter Raleigh](#WRA), in
1898 he won the Newdigate Prize for a poem on the Pilgrim Fathers
(the English settlers who travelled across the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620), and in 1899 he was elected
president of the Oxford Union. His studies culminated in 1899 with a
first in Greats. Buchan’s years at Oxford were also highly social, and he forged
close friendships with a circle of similarly energetic, talented men, including
Raymond Asquith, Harold Baker, Aubrey Herbert, and Thomas (Tommy) Nelson. Buchan
later wove threads of this masculine demi-monde into his tales of
gentleman-adventurers.
Buchan’s time at Oxford also coincided with his connection to [John
Lane](#JLA) (1854–1925). The Scottish visual artist [D.Y.
Cameron](#DCA) (1865-1945) had given Buchan an introduction to the publisher, on
whom he called in London in 1895 while on his way to take up residence
at Brasenose (Cameron was a family friend of the Buchans and the illustrator of
several books for Lane). A few weeks later, Lane visited Buchan at Oxford and offered
him, over breakfast with [John Davidson](#JDA) (1857-1909), the
position of literary adviser (i.e., manuscript reviewer) at his firm (replacing [Richard Le Gallienne](#RGA)(1866-1947)). Among Buchan’s contributions
was the recommendation to publish Arnold Bennett’s first novel, The Man from the North (1898; originally titled In the Shadow).
Volume 8 (January 1896) of The Yellow Book
marked Buchan’s first appearance in Lane’s periodical, which Paul Webb characterizes
as “one of the last places one would expect to find John Buchan” (43). The short
story “A Captain of Salvation” is an intense psychological portrait of a formerly
dissolute man turned evangelical soul-saver among prostitutes and drunkards. It is
set amidst gritty urban tenements and alleyways, a location likely informed by
Buchan’s first-hand experience of the Gorbals. Buchan followed this piece with two
more Yellow Book publications, both of which are set in
Scotland. The fantastical tale “A Journey of Little Profit” in volume 9 (April
1896) features a drunken shepherd’s midnight feast with the Devil (named
Mr. Stuart). “At the Article of Death” in volume 12 (January 1897) is a
grim realist account of a humble shepherd’s agonizing last days. In
1899, Lane published these last two stories, along with other of
Buchan’s fictions and poems, in Grey Weather: Moorland Tales of
My Own People. Buchan dedicated the collection to his sister Anna, who in
1912 reinvented herself as the novelist O. Douglas.
“A Journey of Little Profit” and “At the Article of Death” are important markers of
Buchan’s growing interest in depicting Scottish landscapes, characters, and voices.
The inspiration for this derived in equal measure from his own youthful explorations,
particularly of the Upper Tweed region, and earlier Scottish writers, especially
Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). As the author of a
biographical sketch in The Bookman noted in
1912, Buchan was a “literary disciple” of the latter, “essentially
Stevensonian both in the matter of literary style and in his outlook on life” (142).
Indeed, one of Buchan’s more thoughtful contributions to the Glasgow University Magazine was his obituary essay on Stevenson. In spring
1898, he and his Oxford friend John Edgar included as part of their Scottish walking
tour a route inspired by Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped.
In 1896, Lane published Buchan’s Scholar-Gipsies as part of the Arcady Library series. This collection of
essays and short stories documents various facets of the author’s beloved Tweeddale
and its inhabitants. Scholar-Gipsies includes etchings by
Cameron, who also designed the neo-pagan cover image depicting Pan piping to three
nymphs. Of Tweeddale, Buchan later observed, referencing Robert Burns, “‘Pan playing
on his aiten reed’ has never ceased to be a denizen of its green valleys” (Memory, 34). The same year as Scholar-Gipsies appeared, Buchan edited a poetry anthology for Lane called
Musa Piscatrix (Buchan was an avid angler most of his
life). In 1898, Lane published Buchan’s second novel, John Burnet of Barns, followed in 1899 by A Lady of Lost Years. This latter novel was Lane’s final
publication of an original Buchan text; however, his company continued to issue new
editions of Scholar-Gipsies and John
Burnet well into the twentieth century.
Buchan was called to the bar in London in June 1901, and in August of
that year Lord Milner hired him to assist in the post-Boer War reconstruction of
South Africa. Buchan’s work involved extensive travel throughout that country, and
the South African landscape fired his literary imagination, most notably realized in
the popular boys’ adventure novel Prester John (1910). He
returned to London in October 1903, whereupon he resumed his legal
career and continued to augment his income by penning articles and reviews for the
Spectator.
On 15 July 1907, Buchan married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor. The couple
had four children between 1908 and 1918. During this
period, Buchan served as chief literary adviser for Thomas Nelson and Sons, the
publishing firm managed by his Oxford friend Tommy Nelson; Buchan became a director
in 1915 and continued working for Nelson’s until 1929.
The First World War saw the publication of Buchan’s arguably most famous works –
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) and Greenmantle (1916) – “shockers” that feature the
heroic exploits of Richard Hannay engaged in fighting German espionage activities.
During these years, Buchan also regularly wrote and published instalments of Nelson’s History of the War, which ultimately ran to 24
volumes. Buchan’s wartime writings were deeply informed by, first, his experiences as
The Times war correspondent and, from 9 February
1917, as director of the Department of Information (eventually a ministry),
the government body responsible for propaganda. The war also affected Buchan on a
deep personal level, as he lost his brother Alastair and several close friends
(including Raymond Asquith, Auberon Herbert, and Tommy Nelson).
In 1919, Buchan purchased Elsfield Manor, located four miles from
Oxford. In Elsfield’s book-lined library, Buchan continued to pen successful
shockers, including Huntingtower (1922),
The Three Hostages (1924), Castle
Gay (1930), and The House of the Four
Winds (1935). He also devoted considerable energy to writing popular
biographies, among them Montrose (1928),
Julius Caesar (1932), and Oliver Cromwell (1934). Literary guests at
Elsfield included T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935), Henry Newbolt (1862-1938), Hillaire
Belloc (1870-1953), George Trevelyan (1876-1962), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and
Robert Graves (1895-1985) (who dedicated The Meaning of
Dreams to Buchan and his wife).
While today Buchan’s adventure novels are likely his best-known achievements, the
final fifth of his life was also devoted to considerable public service. In
1927, he was elected to Parliament as a member for the Scottish
Universities. In 1935, Buchan accepted the appointment as
governor-general of Canada, at which point he was invested as the first Baron
Tweedsmuir of Elsfield (the same year Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) directed a film
version of The Thirty-Nine Steps). In this vice-regal
role, Buchan travelled over vast stretches of Canada, including the Arctic in
1937 (the first governor-general to do so). In 1936, he
also organized the first official visit to Canada by a United States president
(Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)), and he helped plan the 1939 royal
tour by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. In 1937, Buchan founded the
country’s Governor General’s Literary Awards and, in 1939, signed
Canada’s declaration of war with Germany. Buchan died in Montreal of a cerebral
thrombosis in 1940, and his memoirs were published posthumously as Memory Hold-the-Door later that year.
© 2013, Morgan Holmes
Morgan Holmes holds a PhD in English from McGill University. The director of
WordMeridian Communications in Toronto, his research and publication focus on early
modern literature and culture, Victorian/Edwardian history, and current developments
in post-secondary education and health-care policies and service delivery.
Selected Publications by Buchan
“A Captain of Salvation.” The Yellow Book 8 (Jan.
1896): 143-58. The Yellow Nineties Online . Ed. Dennis
Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University. Web. January 10,
2013.
“A Journey of Little Profit.” The Yellow Book 9
(April 1896): 189-201. The Yellow Nineties Online . Ed.
Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University. Web. January 10,
2013.
“At the Article of Death.” The Yellow Book 12 (Jan.
1897): 273-80. The Yellow Nineties Online . Ed. Dennis
Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University. Web. January10,
2013.
Greenmantle. London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1916.
Grey Weather: Moorland Tales of My Own People.
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1899.
John Burnet of Barns. London: John Lane, The Bodley
Head, 1898.
A Lost Lady of Old Years. London: John Lane, The
Bodley Head, 1899.
Memory Hold-the-Door. London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1940.
Montrose: A History. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson &
Sons, 1928.
Scholar-Gipsies. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head,
1896.
Sir Quixote of the Moors. London: T.F. Unwin,
1895.
The Thirty-Nine Steps. Edinburgh: William Blackwood
& Sons, 1915.
The Three Hostages. London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1924.
Selected Publications about Buchan
Buchan, William. John Buchan: A Memoir. London:
Buchan and Enright, 1982. Print.
Cannadine, David. “John Buchan: A Life at the Margins.” The
American Scholar 67.3 (1998): 85-93. ProQuest
Research Library. Web. 4 Jan. 2013.
Daniell, David. The Interpreter’s House: A Critical
Assessment of John Buchan. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1975.
Print.
Hanna, Archibald, Jr. John Buchan, 1875-1940: A
Bibliography. Hamden, CT: ShoeString, 1953. Print.
Lownie, Andrew. John Buchan: The Presbyterian
Cavalier. London: Constable, 1995. Print.
Macdonald, Kate. Ed. Reassessing John Buchan: Beyond “The
Thirty-Nine Steps”. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2009. Print.
Matthew, H.C.G. “Buchan, John.” Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography. Ed. H.C.G. Mathew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2004, 449-56. Print.
Mix, Katherine Lyon. A Study in Yellow: The Yellow
Book and Its Contributors. New York: Greenwood, 1960.
Print.
R.B. “John Buchan.” The Bookman 43.255 (December
1912): 140-142. Print.
Smith, Janet Adam. John Buchan. London: Rupert
Hart-Davis, 1965. Print.
–.John Buchan and His World. London: Thames and
Hudson, 1979. Print.
Turner, Arthur C. Mr. Buchan, Writer: A Life of the First
Lord Tweedsmuir. Toronto: Macmillan, 1949. Print.
Waddell, Nathan. Modern John Buchan: A Critical
Introduction. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
Print.
Webb, Paul. A Buchan Companion: A Guide to the Novels and
Short Stories. Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1994. Print.