Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

(1875-1940)

   Born in Perth, the son of a Calvinist Presbyterian minister, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. He had a varied career: government official; publishing, editing and journalism; member of Parliament for the Scottish universities, 1927-35; and high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and governorgeneral of Canada from 1935. His autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, was published in 1940. He died of a brain hemorrhage shortly after signing Canada's entry into the Second World War. Although better known for his thrillers-Prester John (1910); Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) Greenmantle (1916) (the list of his published books numbers well over a hundred)-and for his biographies, he was also a poet. The Gipsy's Song to the Lady Cassilis invites you to meander with him. Some of his other poems: "From the Pentlands," "The Kirk Bell," "Leap in the Smoke," "On Leave."

   Sources: Biography of John Buchan: John Buchan Society (www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Never Such Innocence: A New Antholog y of Great War Verse. Martin Stephen, ed. Buchan and Enright, 1988. Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http:// www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.