A son of the manse, John Buchan was schooled in Glasgow and went on to attend the University of Glasgow. While studying moral philosophy and the classics, he also wrote poetry and essays for the Glasgow University Magazine in the 1890s which were some of his earliest published works before his great success in 1915 with The Thirty-Nine Steps.
In the 20th century he became the best-selling author in Britain, until his death in 1940. Buchan has over 100 books to his name – fiction, non-fiction, history and biography. In 1935, and now with the title Lord Tweedsmuir, he became Governor-General of Canada at a critical time in its development.
John Buchan (Image: courtesy of the Rt Hon. The Lord Tweedsmuir. All rights reserved.)
In the next Library Talk, on Tuesday 25th November at 7pm, which is presented by The Friends of Glasgow University Library Dr Catriona Macdonald of the College of Arts will speak about John Buchan and the Great War of 1914-18, his involvement, his writings and his personal story.
The Talk takes place in the newly created Talk Lab – room 306, Library level 3, and is open to Friends, visitors and students.
Dr Macdonald is a Reader in Late Modern Scottish History, Head of Scottish History in the School of Humanities, and among many other posts is co-editor of the bi-annual Scottish Historical Review.
A Special Collection of 39 books of John Buchan’s work is described and illustrated here and details of the John Buchan Society are available here.
You can find out details of the Friends of GUL other planned talks on their events page here.
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Reblogged this on IMPossible Archives and commented:
Following on from our visit to Glasgow University archives last week, this is a good example of how records are used as evidence. John Buchan’s matriculation record stands as proof that he studied at the University of Glasgow.
Reblogged this on Glasgow University's Great War Project.