John Buchan Collection

John Buchan served as Canada's 15th Governor General from 1935 to 1940 and became a prominent champion of Canadian culture and national unity.

Can a library tell the story of the man? In Buchan's case, quite a lot about his interests, intellect, and proclivities can be inferred from its wide-ranging contents. 

The Collection includes the bound manuscripts of many of Buchan's published writings plus his entire private library; only a few relevant titles have been selectively added since 1955. In 2026 a select number of titles that belonged to John Buchan's son, the 2nd Lord Tweedsmuir, John Norman Stuart Buchan (1911-1996), were added to the collection. 

The Collection is rich in works of Scottish history, the clans, politics, religion, biography, Canadian geography and the north, and literature (both fiction and poetry). There is a significant section on the 1914-1918 War in which Buchan had important involvement, both as journalist and historian as well as participant in the British Intelligence Office. 

Learn more about the collection's contents via the finding aid or browse titles through the library catalogue. 

Note also that the Queen's University Archives hold the John Buchan fonds, consisting of both textual and microfilmed material relating to his personal life and career as Governor General of Canada, including correspondence, speeches (general and political), writings (published and unpublished), subject files, scrapbooks, press clippings, and photographs.