John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier [Paperback]

David R. Godine (Author), Andrew Lownie (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1567922368 | ISBN-13: 978-1567922363 | Publication Date: June 2003 | Edition: Revised

This biography of John Buchan is drawn on private papers which fully portray his life and interests, and provide a comprehensive view of British political, social and literary circles during the first half of the 20th century. Particularly noted for his classic thriller, "The Thirty Nine Steps", John Buchan wrote over 100 books, including a series of "shockers" as he called them, featuring the characters Richard Hannay, Sandy Arbuthnot and Edward Leithen, children's books and tales of the supernatural. He also wrote biographies, including lives of Montrose and Sir Walter Scott, and was the author of a history of the Great War. Buchan had a distinguished career in public life. He was a member of Milner's famous "Kindergarten" of young men in South Africa and later worked for the "Spectator". He worked in publishing at Nelson's and then ran the Ministry of Information during World War I. After eight years as a Conservative MP, he ended his career as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of Canada. Although he led an active public life, Buchan was at heart a countryman and fisherman, and believed deeply in the redemptive powers of the wild.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known to American readers as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle and other "shockers," as Buchan referred to them, John Buchan's protean life and work encompassed a great diversity of accomplishments. In a detailed, well-balanced and well-documented work, Lownie, who has edited collections of Buchan's poems and stories, examines his subject's successes and failures as well as the shifting tides of critical opinion that have buffeted or burnished his reputation. Buchan's 65 years (1875-1940) were crowded with achievements. He attended Glasgow University and Oxford and was chancellor of Edinburgh University. His literary roles included war correspondent, various positions with Nelson Publishing Co. and deputy chairman of Reuters News Agency. His distinguished record of public service included various posts in South Africa, WWI director of information, MP for the Scottish Universities and governor-general of Canada. In addition to his works of fiction, Buchan wrote and published essays, poetry, biographies and histories, and he edited numerous other works. And yet somehow Buchan never seemed to grab the grand prize expected of him. Lownie argues quite convincingly that Buchan had too many talents pulling him in various directions-torn between romantic and practical impulses-and that ill health compounded his difficulties. He also felt himself to be always the outsider: "regarded as a Scotsman in England and an Englishman in Scotland." Regardless of successes or failures, Buchan had, and continues to have, a shaping influence on espionage fiction, with his books still being read and adapted for radio, television and film. Illus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Trumpets should now sound for Buchan; and I will sound one of my own for Andrew Lownie, who has brought this most extraordinary man to life in a way no previous writer has. The Independent This formidably detailed study is a labour of love by a devoted Buchanite, a nuanced understanding of a figure who, for too long, has been regarded as an extension of his fictional heroes. -- The Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher; Revised edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567922368
• ISBN-13: 978-1567922363
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review extracts, August 9, 2007

By 

Andrew Lownie - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier (Paperback)

Mr Coker is entitled to his views but Amazon readers should be aware that all five editions of the biography received extremely favourable coverage. A selection of extracts follows:

"Andrew Lownie gives us a clear account of Buchan's career, which rattles along as pacily as a Hannay thriller...Admirably readable, this book will be invaluable to those who are now encountering Buchan's work for the first time in the World's Classics and Penguin reprints which have begun to appear since his copyrights entered the public domain in 1990. Lownie's lucid account of Buchan's life redefines the man as infinitely more complex than we thought he was." Sunday Times

"This, like many other questions about this amazing man, is answered by Andrew Lownie in his wonderful new life. Lownie explains, even more convincingly than Janet Adam Smith in the hitherto standard biography, how Buchan's successes in life never satisfied his inner yearnings...Lownie explains this inner sense of failure of this exceptional man with vastly greater insight than any previous writer...Trumpets should now sound for Buchan; and I will sound one of my own for Andrew Lownie, who has brought this most extraordinary man to life in a way no previous writer has." The Independent

"Lownie's meticulous biography is particularly good on the financial pressures which influenced most of Buchan's decisions...This formidably detailed study is a labour of love by a devoted Buchanite, a nuanced understanding of a figure who, for too long, has been regarded as an extension of his fictional heroes." The Guardian

"Andrew Lownie offers a solid and convincing portrait of a complex man, and controls the innumerable aspects of Buchan's life in an exemplary manner, without losing sight of the fact that Buchan was, in Simon Raven's words, 'a very odd fish indeed.'" Times Literary Supplement

"Andrew Lownie's meticulously researched and attractively written new biography - the first since Janet Adam Smith's in 1965 - presents us with a John Buchan who is a great deal more complex and nuanced than might be imagined from the assiduously self-promoted clubland hero persona Buchan himself created in his rise as public man and heartily outdoor countryman-author...Lownie is sympathetic to Buchan, but this is by no means a hagiography. With scrupulous honesty, Buchan's faults and foibles are exposed to us along with his undoubted virtues...this exemplary biography, full of new insights and fresh documents unearthed and published for the first time, makes fascinating reading." The Scotsman.

"Lownie's study is equally well argued and written with an evident, though at times exasperated, fondness for his subject." Scotland on Sunday

"He has been the subject of previous biographies, but Andrew Lownie's is a welcome addition...Mr Lownie has done him proud." Financial Times

"Brilliantly written and researched - and the first biography of Buchan in 30 years - Lownie draws on newly-released private papers to astutely pick his way through the public image and the passionately private man, painting a vivid and refreshingly readable literary portrait of one of the great unacknowledged and substantive figures in recent Scottish life." Catholic Life.

" The best biography yet of the creator of Richard Hannay and The Thirty-Nine Steps. It shows Buchan to be the complex and rewarding figure his fans have always known him to be." The Express on Sunday

" Lively and brilliantly researched new biography of one of Scotland's most enduringly popular writers...Buchan's was nevertheless an impressive life, and Lownie tells it with sympathy and style. The Scotsman


"It is hard to imagine how this deft portrait of the bantamweight politician and still highly readable thriller writer could be bettered...As Lownie's excellent literary criticism suggests, Buchan's paradoxical nature underlies the evergreen potency of his novels." Independent

"This exemplary biography draws on private papers not used until now to give a most convincing portrait of a complex character as well as lucid and detailed criticism of Buchan's literary oeuvre." Sunday Telegraph

"...this biography (rightly acclaimed on its first publication in 1995) will help restore a much-underated author - and historic figure - to his rightful status." Scotsman

"Andrew Lownie's widely researched biography of this fascinating, complex and enigmatic figure has to be the definitive work. Lownie is admirably objective in his approach to Buchan and perceptive on the springs of his character." Sarah Bradford, The Tablet

"...a compelling picture of the author's life, and a wide view of British political, social and literary circles during the first half of the 20th century." Scots Magazine

"...solid and scholarly..." The Globe and Mail.

"In his thorough and lucid biography, Andrew Lownie, a Scottish journalist and editor of several collections of Buchan's stories and poetry, sympathetically evokes this `highly complex and private man who may not always himself have understood his own motivations and abilities.' " New York Times

"...the full sweep of this remarkable man's career is well told by Andrew Lownie in John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier." Washington Times

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Highly unsatisfactory, January 1, 2006

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier (Paperback)

I can still recall the thrill, about 25 years ago, when I obtained a copy of CLUBLAND HEROES by Richard Usborne, which listed and discussed the "thriller" novels of Dornford Yates, "Sapper" and John Buchan. With the titles of the novels in hand, I was able to obtain almost all of the relevant works by all three authors, although the effort consumed... about 25 years. Buchan's novels were, I found, by far the most interesting, challenging and "literary," with Yates' running second, and I then obtained and read with interest biographies of Buchan and Yates.

Here's a new biography of Buchan and, alas, it doesn't amount to much. One of Buchan's major talents was the ability to make fast friends quickly, and this seems to have impressed the author, Andrew Lownie, more than any of his other abilities. On almost every page, once the book gets well underway and Buchan begins to mix with humanity, is a list of ten, twenty or even thirty names of people (most of whom will be unknown to any British citizen under 70, and almost all of whom will be unknown to any American citizen of any age), most of them completely unidentified within the text, that Buchan met or consorted with in the interval covered by that page.

The english style in which the book is written is at times nearly impenetrable. The author seems to have something against commas; mainly, there aren't any, and where at rare intervals one appears, there is generally no reason for it to be there. A number of sentences do not make sense, either because of misprints, or because the text proved nearly impossible to proofread so that omitted words or phrases were not detected.

Buchan's career as a politician seems to have been hampered by his fame as an author, whilst his career as an author seems to have been hampered by the demands of his government responsibilities. One recurring theme of the biography is the odd withholding from Buchan of the customary honors his many government services would ordinarily have merited. Another theme is Buchan's periodic struggles with intervals of very poor health, mainly tracking back to gastric ulcers. Another theme is Buchan's tremendous physical energy, demonstrated by the fact that in addition to working "full time" for a publisher, writing his own books, holding various political offices, etc., all simultaneously, he could always find time to walk 30 miles in a day, or climb some difficult peak with essentially no preparation.

Lownie discusses Buchan's literary activities in chapters separated from those discussing his other activities, which is good in a way, but also becomes quite confusing, since a "book" chapter, say Chapter N, can jump 5 or 10 years ahead of the following "life" chapter, N+1.

Buchan was eventually appointed Governor-General of Canada, and since this imperial officer could not be a commoner, Buchan at last became a Peer of the Realm, Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield. His enjoyment of the appointment was alas short-lived. He had held the office for only 5 years when a slip in the bathroom smashed his skull.

I don't know to what extent Buchan's books are read any more, or easily available any more. But his "thrillers" featuring Richard Hannay, Edward Leithen, and other characters as attractive as Buchan himself must have been in person, have a timeless quality and settings so vividly and immediately described that the reader can effortlessly imagine himself right there with the characters. The novels are as readable and enjoyable today as they ever were.