The Thirty-Nine Steps - Poche

Biographie de John Buchan

John Buchan was born in Perth, in 1875, the son of a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1876 his family moved to Fife, where as a small boy he walked six miles a day in order to attend the local school, and then later to the Gorbals in Glasgow. Buchan was later educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow University (by which time he was already publishing articles in periodicals) and Brasenose College, Oxford. His years at Oxford - 'spent peacefully in an enclave like a monastery'- nevertheless widened his horizons, and he published five books and many articles, winning several awards (including the Newdigate Prize for poetry) and securing a First. His post-university career was equally diverse and successful and, despite ill-health and continual pain from a duodenal ulcer, he played a prominent part in public life as a barrister, member of parliament, writer, soldier and publisher. In 1907 he married Susan Grosvenor; the marriage was very happy and produced a daughter and three sons. He was created Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in 1935 and became the fifteenth Governor-General of Canada, a position he held until his death in 1940. 'l don't think I remember anyone,' wrote G. M. Trevelyan to his widow, 'whose death evoked a more enviable outburst of sorrow, love and admiration.' John Buchan's first success as an author came with Prester John in 1910, and was followed by a series of adventure thrillers, or 'shockers' as he called them, caracterized by their authentically rendered backgrounds romantic characters, their atmosphere of expectancy and world-wide conspiracies, and the author's own enthusiasm. He created three main heroes: Richard Hannay, whose adventures are collected in The Complete Richard Hannay; Dickson McCunn, the Glaswegian provision merchant with the soul of a romantic, who features in Huntingtower, Castle Gay and The House of the Four Winds; and Sir Edward Leithen, the lawyer who tells the story of John MacNab and Sick Heart River, Buchan's final novel. He also established a reputation as a historical biographer with such works as Montrose, Oliver Cromwell and Augustus.