JOHN BUCHAN: A Biography

by Janet A. Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

John Buchan is most noted in this country for two things. In his day, he wrote of Richard Hannay, who became as well known as Ian Fleming's James Bond. He also served as Governor-General of Canada. He did not so much struggle though life as cope. He started from a manse in Scotland, obtained the requisite education of the late 19th century at Oxford on scholarship and went on to become a poet of sorts, a novelist of parts, a soldier and, finally, a statesman. He was always in touch with the best writers and the politicians of his time and much of the incidental interest in this well written biography of a life well-lived comes from anecdotes dealing with the Churchills, the T.E. Lawrences et al. He was at one end and the same time a romantic and a realist, an adventurer with a practical commitment to his fellow men. As Lord Tweedsmuir, he assumed the Governor-General's post in Canada because he liked Canadians and their American neighbors. He had a series of talks with Roosevelt and was trying very hard to arrange a conference that would have placed a different light on potential Allied strength, but Chamberlain dismissed the idea and the war began . A nicely balanced biography of an excellent, thoughtful man who was a sort of Renaissance man for his times. His own autobiography, Pilgrim's Way, is a classic in its field.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION