John Buchan
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 26/Aug/1875 (Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, UK)
- died: 11/Feb/1940 (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
Biography
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish novelist and politician who served as Governor General of Canada.
Early life
Born in Perth, Scotland and growing up in Fife, he spent many summer holidays with his grandparents in the Borders, developing a love of walking and the Border scenery and its wildlife that is often featured in his novels. He won a scholarship to the University of Glasgow where he studied Classics and wrote poetry and first became a published author. He then studied law at Brasenose College, Oxford, winning the Newdigate prize for poetry. He had a genius for friendship which he retained all his life. His friends at Oxford included Hilaire Belloc, Raymond Asquith and Aubrey Herbert.
Life as an author and politician
Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State—Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. Buchan married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor, cousin of the Duke of Westminster, on July 15, 1907. Together they had four children, two of whom would spend most of their lives in Canada.
In 1910, he wrote "Prester John", the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. In 1911, he first suffered from duodenal ulcers, an illness he would give to one of his characters in later books. He also entered politics running as a Tory candidate for a Border constituency.
During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book "The Thirty-Nine Steps", a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I, featuring his hero Richard Hannay, who was based on a friend from South African days, Edmund Ironside. The following year he published a sequel "Greenmantle". In 1916, he joined the British Army Intelligence Corps where as a 2nd Lieutenant he wrote speeches and communiques for Sir Douglas Haig.
In 1917, he returned to Britain where he became Director of Information under Lord Beaverbrook in 1917. After the war he began to write on historical subjects as well as continuing to write thrillers and historical novels. His career as an author was very successful, and he produced many well-respected historical works. He wrote biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, Oliver Cromwell and James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, but the most famous of his books were the Richard Hannay spy thrillers and it is probably for these that he is now best remembered.
"The Thirty-Nine Steps" was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935.
Buchan became president of the Scottish Historical Society. He was twice Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and in a 1927 by-election was elected a Scottish Unionist MP for the Scottish Universities. Politically he was of the Unionist-Nationalist Tradition that believed in Scotland's promotion as a nation within the British Empire and once remarked "I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist. If it could be proved that a Scottish parliament were desirable...Scotsmen should support it". The effects of depression in Scotland and the subsequent high emigration also led him to say "We do not want to be like the Greeks, powerful and prosperous wherever we settle, but with a dead Greece behind us" (Hansard, November 24, 1932). The insightful quotation "It's a great life, if you don't weaken" is also famously attributed to him.
Reputation
In recent years in common with many of his contemporaries, Buchan's reputation has been tarnished by the lack of political correctness perceived, with hindsight, in his novels. However, in many other ways, his work stands the test of time, and he is currently undergoing a resurgence in popularity.
Buchan had a reputation for discretion. He was involved with the Intelligence Corps as a propagandist during World War I and may have had an involvement with British intelligence later; he is cited as having some involvement during the years leading to the Second World War by Canadian-born British spymaster William Stephenson but the books about him are not always reliable.
In the 1930s Buchan gave financial and moral support to the poor, young academic Roberto Weiss, as Buchan was fascinated by the classical antiquity period Weiss studied, and wished to support this.
His autobiography "Memory Hold the Door" (Published as Pilgrims Way in the USA) was said to be John F. Kennedy's favourite book although a list given to Life magazine in 1961 quoted "Montrose" at the head of the list.
Filmography
Hitchcock adaptations...
- The 39 Steps (1935) - original novel ("The Thirty-Nine Steps")
Radio Adaptations
Articles
Links
- Internet Movie Database
- Buchanalia
- California Literary Review - The Last Victorian: John Buchan and the Hannay Quartet
- The Thirty-Nine Steps - full text of the novel (PDF)
- Greenmantle - full text of the novel (PDF)
- The Three Hostages - full text of the novel (PDF)
- Project Gutenberg - free text of "The Thirty-Nine Steps" by John Buchan
- Project Gutenberg - free text of "Greenmantle" by John Buchan