John Buchan was a prolific author and a distinguished statesman who rose from relatively humble beginnings in Scotland to become a Conservative Member of Parliament and Governor General of Canada. Although best remembered now for his 1915 novel The Thirty Nine Steps, his remarkable output of over seventy volumes of fiction, biography, history and essays comprises a significant and often undervalued contribution to British, and in particular Scottish, letters and reveals a man of deep learning and accomplished literary craftsmanship.
Born in Perth in 1875, the eldest of six children, to the Reverend John Buchan, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and his wife Helen, the daughter of a Borders sheep farmer, Buchan’s earliest memories were of the countryside, coal-mines and a linoleum factory around the Fife village where the family moved...
1917 words
Citation: Miller, John . "John Buchan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=626, accessed 08 December 2025.]
