John Buchan, also known as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish novelist and public servant who led a successful career in both fields. He was born in Perth, Scotland in 1875, the first child of John Buchan and Helen Buchan. Buchan's childhood, which he shared with his sister Anna, was spent in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and he developed a love for walking and the Scottish Borders' scenery and flora and fauna during his holidays with his maternal grandparents. This love is reflected in his books, many of which feature the Scottish Borders and the River Tweed tributary, Leithen Water, as inspiration for the name of the lead character in several of his novels, Sir Edward Leithen.
Buchan was educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities and began his career in law. However, he soon moved to South Africa in 1902, where he contributed to the country's reconstruction following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction. Upon his return to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he served as Director of Information in the British government and wrote a twenty-four volume history of the war, which was later abridged. Alongside his busy public life, Buchan wrote superb action novels, including the spy-catching adventures of Richard Hannay, whose exploits are described in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep. Apart from Hannay, Buchan created two other leading characters in Dickson McCunn, the shrewd retired grocer who appears in Huntingtower, Castle Gay, and The House of the Four Winds; and the lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who features in The Power-House, John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River. From 1927 to 1935, Buchan was Conservative M.P. for the Scottish Universities, and in 1935, on his appointment as Governor-General to Canada, he was made a peer, taking the title Baron Tweedsmuir. During these years, he was still productive as a writer and published notable historical biographies, such as Montrose, Sir Walter Scott, and Cromwell. Buchan died in Montreal in 1940, leaving behind a legacy as a fine statesman and story-teller. The John Buchan Society was founded in 1979 to encourage continuing interest in his life, works and legacy.