John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
(born Aug. 26, 1875,
Perth
, Perthshire, Scot.?died Feb. 11, 1940, Montreal) was a 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.
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.