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John Buchan's Uncollected Journalism a Critical And JOHN BUCHAN’S UNCOLLECTED JOURNALISM A CRITICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION ROGER JOHN CLARKE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education University of the West of England, Bristol January 2015 This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement JOHN BUCHAN’S UNCOLLECTED JOURNALISM A CRITICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION THESIS ABSTRACT John Buchan (1875-1940) has a literary reputation as a minor novelist, based mainly on his success as a popular fiction writer, the inventor of the spy thriller in his best-known novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915). Although there has been considerably increased scholarly interest in his work in recent years, the perception that he is mainly a genre writer persists and has limited the success of attempts to move his literary reputation towards the academic mainstream. Other areas of his writing have received some recognition, but his uncollected journalism has remained a neglected aspect of his work, largely overlooked even by Buchan specialists. This thesis brings an academic focus to Buchan’s uncollected journalism for the first time. It breaks new ground by examining the style, structure, and content of his articles and reviews, and argues that Buchan should be considered as an essayist of elegance and authority, an astute literary critic attuned to contemporary trends, and a wide-ranging cultural commentator on his times. The thesis shows that Buchan’s uncollected journalism, in its volume and range, provides a major field for the additional research which is clearly required if Buchan’s literary reputation is to be further enhanced. It aims to make a significant contribution by opening up this area of his work to future study in two entirely new ways. First, it contains an extensive catalogue of his uncollected journalism, over a thousand items in total, with each article categorised and summarised as an aid to future researchers, features which have never before been available. The catalogue also contains a hundred articles and reviews which have not been included in any previous bibliography. Secondly, it provides a selection of annotated articles which could form the basis of the first critical edition of Buchan’s essays to be issued in order to promote further recognition of this aspect of his writing. CONTENTS PART I INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 CHAPTER ONE: REVIEW OF BUCHAN SCHOLARSHIP…………………………………. 6 CHAPTER TWO: BUCHAN THE ESSAYIST…………………………………………………… 17 CHAPTER THREE: BUCHAN THE LITERARY CRITIC…………………………………….. 36 CHAPTER FOUR: BUCHAN THE CULTURAL COMMENTATOR……………………. 74 CHAPTER FIVE: THEMES AND SOURCES…………………………………………………. 109 CONCLUSION............................................................................................ 140 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………………. 142 PART II CATALOGUE OF BUCHAN’S UNCOLLECTED JOURNALISM Volume One INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 A: LITERATURE AND BOOKS……………………………………………………………………… 11 B: POETRY AND VERSE…………………………………………………………………………….. 30 C: BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIRS, AND LETTERS………………………………………………… 62 D: HISTORY………………………………………………………………………………………………. 99 E: RELIGION……………………………………………………………………………………………. 126 F: PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE………………………………………………………………… 130 G: POLITICS AND SOCIETY………………………………………………………………………. 146 Volume Two H: IMPERIAL AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS……………………………………………………… 178 I: WAR, MILITARY, AND NAVAL AFFAIRS……………………………………………….. 229 J: ECONOMICS, BUSINESS, AND TRADE UNIONS…………………………………… 262 K: EDUCATION……………………………………………………………………………………….. 272 L: THE LAW AND LEGAL CASES………………………………………………………………. 278 M: TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION……………………………………………………………… 283 N: FISHING, HUNTING, MOUNTAINEERING, AND OTHER SPORTS…………. 304 APPENDIX ANNOTATED ARTICLES INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………… 1 ARTICLE 1: ‘Robert Louis Stevenson’……………………………………………………... 7 ARTICLE 2: ‘Nonconformity in Literature’……………………………………………… 15 ARTICLE 3: ‘The National “Malaise”’……………………………………………………… 22 ARTICLE 4: ‘The Celtic Spirit in Literature’…………………………………………….. 28 ARTICLE 5: ‘An Imperial Club for London’……………………………………………… 32 ARTICLE 6: ‘The Glamour of High Altitudes’………………………………………….. 36 ARTICLE 7: ‘The Life of the Kaffir’………………………………………………………….. 41 ARTICLE 8: ‘The Practical Mystic’…………………………………………………………… 47 ARTICLE 9: ‘Sir Richard Burton’……………………………………………………………… 52 ARTICLE 10: ‘The Urban Sentiment’………………………………………………………. 58 ARTICLE 11: ‘Local Colour’……………………………………………………………………… 63 ARTICLE 12: ‘History and Life’………………………………………………………………… 68 ARTICLE 13: ‘George Meredith’……………………………………………………………… 73 ARTICLE 14: ‘The Poetics of Aristotle’……………………………………………………. 80 ARTICLE 15: ‘Greek Religion and Modern Folk-Lore’…………………………….. 86 ARTICLE 16: ‘The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century’………………….. 92 ARTICLE 17: ‘African Secret History’……………………………………………………… 98 ARTICLE 18: ‘Montrose’…………………………………………………………………………. 105 ARTICLE 19: ‘Ypres To-day’……………………………………………………………………. 112 ARTICLE 20: ‘A New Defence of Poetry’………………………………………………… 119 ARTICLE 21: ‘This Freedom’…………………………………………………………………… 125 ARTICLE 22: ‘Adventure Stories: From Defoe to Stevenson’………………… 128 ARTICLE 23: ‘The Most Difficult Form of Fiction’………………………………….. 133 ARTICLE 24: ‘Conservatism and Progress’…………………………………………….. 138 ARTICLE 25: ‘England’s Changing Face’………………………………………………….. 143 PART I INTRODUCTION John Buchan (1875-1940) is best-known as a writer of popular fiction and the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), his most famous novel which established the genre of the spy thriller. His literary work is also notable for its historical novels and biographies. In addition, he had a distinguished career as a public man of affairs. After graduating from Oxford with a first in Classics and qualifying as a barrister, he joined the ‘kindergarten’ of bright young men assembled by the High Commissioner for South Africa, Lord Milner, to administer the reconstruction of the country after the Boer War. He spent two years in South Africa, returning to Britain in 1903, when he resumed his career as a barrister specialising in foreign taxation before joining Nelson’s the publishers as chief literary advisor at the beginning of 1907. During the First World War he was appointed Director of Information, responsible for Government propaganda and press relations both at home and abroad. After the war he became Deputy Chairman of Reuters news agency in 1923. He also had a career in politics, which began as President of the Oxford Union, continued as a Conservative candidate for the Peebles and Selkirk constituency before the First World War, and eventually came to fruition when he was elected as MP for the Scottish Universities in 1927. A political insider on close terms with Prime Ministers Baldwin and Macdonald, though never a member of the Cabinet, his political career culminated in his appointment as Governor-General of Canada in 1935, when he became Lord Tweedsmuir. Underlying these public aspects of Buchan’s career is his lesser-known work as a journalist, beginning in the mid-1890s and continuing intermittently until his appointment to Canada in 1935. His most prolific period was between 1900 and 1914 when he was on the staff of 1 the Spectator and later became its assistant editor1. He also contributed to many other magazines and newspapers, both influential (such as Blackwood’s and the Times Literary Supplement) and popular (for example the Daily Express and the Graphic). A small number of his journal articles were subsequently published in book form2, but the vast majority (over a thousand items) remain uncollected. Most of these articles, particularly those for the Spectator, were published anonymously, and it is probably for this reason that they have attracted little attention from biographers or academic researchers. Yet Buchan’s journalistic output represents a very substantial body of writing which provides insights into his views on such matters as the art of fiction, the role of the author, modernism and poetry, as well as connections with the themes and sources of his literary work, both fiction and non-fiction. In addition, it provides a fascinating commentary on the more general cultural developments of his time. This thesis breaks new ground by being the first academic work to concentrate exclusively on Buchan’s uncollected journalism. It argues that his roles as essayist, literary critic and cultural commentator which emerge from his journalism have been underestimated in the overall assessment of his career, because this aspect of his work has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Although concerted efforts have been made in recent years to move Buchan’s literary reputation from that of a popular genre writer into the academic mainstream, which have met with some success, it is important that his position as a significant figure in the literary and cultural world of his time is firmly established if further progress is to be made. The thesis argues that a proper recognition of his roles as essayist, critic and cultural commentator can make a significant contribution towards raising his academic profile. 1 There was a break from November 1901 to October 1903 when he was with Milner in South Africa. 2 These collections are detailed in
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