ABSTRACT
In his multifarious roles of poet, anthologist, novelist, journalist, businessman, committee man and politician, John Buchan saw to it that Scotland maintained, and was seen to have maintained, a distinctive cultural identity. His historical ction and biography were reminders of Scotland’s past, as was his active membership of Scottish historical, antiquarian and literary societies and his editorship of the Scottish Review (1907-8). His Scottish novels o ered explorations of the national psyche, while his work in poetry – in his own writing and as editor of the anthology Th e Northern Muse (1924) – showed his commitment to the Scots language and its traditions. It is hardly surprising, then, that he has been considered an important gure in the foundation of the Scottish literary revival of the interwar years, and that Hugh MacDiarmid, the movement’s godfather hailed him as ‘the Dean of the Faculty of Contemporary Scottish Letters’.1
