John Buchan

John Buchan (1875-1940), Scottish writer and statesman. John Buchan, 1^st Baron Tweedsmuir, was born in Perth. An active politician, he wrote in his spare time, producing History of the Great War (4 volumes, 1921-1922), Sir Walter Scott (1932), and nearly 50 other books. His worldwide reputation, however, rests on his exciting adventure-mystery novels, especially Prester John (1910) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. Buchan was elected to the House of Commons in 1927; in 1935 King George V raised him to the peerage and named him governor-general of Canada. His affection for Canada is evinced in the novel Sick Heart River (1941; United States title Mountain Meadow). Buchan's autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door (1940) was published in the United States as Pilgrim's Way.