Picture of John Buchan

Timeline

Lifetime: 1875 - 1940 Passed: ≈ 84 years ago

Title

Novelist, Historian, and Unionist Politician

Country/Nationality

United Kingdom
Wikipedia

John Buchan

Buchan's 100 works include nearly 30 novels, seven collections of short stories, and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. He was awarded the 1928 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.

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir  (/ˈbʌxən/; 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.

John Buchan dies in Montreal. The novelist and peer died on February 11th, 1940.

Books by John Buchan

The Thirty Nine Steps Cover image

The Thirty Nine Steps

Fiction Novel
Mystery Spy Escape

Richard Hannay’s boredom with London society is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer from South Africa is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. When a neighbor is killed in his flat, Richard, suspected, decod...

Greenmantle Cover image

Greenmantle

Fiction Novel
War Thriller

Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (191...

Prester John  Cover image

Prester John

Adventure Action Fiction
Young Death Thriller Legend Leader

It tells the story of a young Scotsman named David Crawfurd and his adventures in South Africa, where a Zulu uprising under the charismatic black minister John Laputa is tied to the medieval legend of Prester John.

The Last Secrets Cover image

The Last Secrets

Fiction History
Twentieth Century Mystery Exploration Determination Discovery Modern Earth

The author, John Buchan, maintains that "the main lines of the earth's architecture have been determined" during the first two decades of the twentieth century, and all that remains is but "amplifying our knowledge of the groyning and buttresses and...

Mr. Standfast Cover image

Mr. Standfast

This is the third of Buchan's Richard Hannay novels, following The Thirty-nine Steps and Greenmantle. Set, like Greenmantle, during World War I, it deals Brigadier-General Hannay's recall from the Western Front, to engage in espionage, and forced (mu...

Huntingtower Cover image

Huntingtower

Dickson McCunn, a respectable, newly retired grocer, plans a walking holiday in the hills of south-west Scotland. He meets a young English poet and finds himself in the thick of a plot involving the kidnapping of a Russian princess, who is held priso...

Power-House Cover image

Power-House

The Power-House is a novel by John Buchan, a thriller set in London, England. It was written in 1913, when it was serialised in Blackwood's Magazine, and it was published in book form in 1916. The narrator is the barrister and Tory MP Edward Leithen,...

Three Hostages Cover image

Three Hostages

The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels. The Richard Hannay novels are action/mystery/spy novels with a James bond feel. This book starts out with Richard Hannay married to Mary Lamington living in Fosse Manor. He is asked to w...

History of the Great War, Volume One Cover image

History of the Great War, Volume One

This is the first of a four-volume history of the First World War, covering the period from its outbreak in the summer of 1914 to the campaign in Neuve Chapelle of March 1915. The author, John Buchan, was most widely known as the writer of the spy-th...

History of the Great War, Volume Two Cover image

History of the Great War, Volume Two

This is the second of a four-volume history of the First World War, covering the period from the opening of the Dardenelles Campaign in September 1914 through the first stage of The Battle of Verdun, stopping in mid-April, 1916. As David Reader noted...

Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies Cover image

Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies

Celebrated Scottish author John Buchan, creator of the Richard Hannay series of thrillers (including The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle) brings light this wonderfully diverse collection of short stories and poetry showcasing Buchan's skill at both...

History of the Great War, Volume Three Cover image

History of the Great War, Volume Three

This is the third of a four-volume history of the First World War, coming in along the Ypres Salient in February 1916 and stopping mid-November 1917. Buchan continues to give us a comprehensive war history that provides clear understanding of the com...

History of the Great War, Volume Four: Book 3, The Great Sallies (cont.) and Book 4, The Surrender Cover image

History of the Great War, Volume Four: Book 3, The Great Sallies (cont.) and Book 4, The Surrender

This is the fourth of a four-volume history of the First World War, coming in during 1917, when Germany is reorganizing and Russia is about to fall. Buchan continues to give us a comprehensive war history that provides a clear understanding of the co...

John McNab Cover image

John McNab

Sir Edward Leithen and his friends Lord Lamancha, Palliser-Yeates, and Archie Roylance are bored of life. After Leithen's doctor recommends a hearty adventure, they set out to Scotland for a season of shooting--on other people's grounds. Determined t...