Susan Charlotte Buchan, Baroness TweedsmuirDStJ (néeGrosvenor; 20 April 1882 – 22 March 1977) was a British writer and the wife of author John Buchan. Between 1935 and 1940 she was viceregal consort of Canada while her husband was the governor general.[2] She was also the author of several novels, children's books, and biographies, some of which were published under the name Susan Tweedsmuir.[3]
She was a childhood friend of Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf), and they remained friendly, although not always close, in adult life. The Hogarth Press, run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, published a work of Lady Tweedsmuir's in 1935 and she was the recipient of one of the last letters Virginia Woolf wrote.[5]
Her time as Vicereine of Canada is remembered for her energetic relief work. Her library project of gathering books in Eastern Canada for impoverished western communities and sending train carloads of them west was the foundation for many public libraries across the prairies.[6]
Her interest in literary education influenced the establishment of the Governor General's Awards, for many years Canada's primary literary awards, and the library at Rideau Hall.[7] Following her husband's death she returned to Britain, where she wrote several more novels, a series of memoirs, and a biography of her husband.
She died at Burford, near Oxford, on 22 March 1977 aged 94 and was buried beside her husband in the churchyard at Elsfield.[8]
Bibliography
The Sword of State: Wellington after Waterloo (1928)
Jim and the Dragon (1929)
Lady Louisa Stuart: Her Memories and Portraits (1932)
The Vision at the Inn: A Play in One Act (1933)
Funeral March of a Marionette: Charlotte of Albany (1935)
The Scent of Water (1937)
Mice on Horseback (1940)
Canada in The British Commonwealth in Pictures series (1941)
The Cat's Grandmother (1942)
The Silver Ball (1944)
John Buchan by His Wife and Friends (1947)
The Rainbow through the Rain (1950)
The Lilac and the Rose (1952)
The Freedom of the Garden (1952)
A Winter Bouquet (1954)
Cousin Harriet (1957)
Dashbury Park (1959)
A Stone in the Pool (1961)
The Edwardian Lady (1966)
References
^England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007
^Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. British Academy., Oxford University Press. (Online ed.). Oxford. 2004. ISBN9780198614128. OCLC56568095.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
^Nigel Nicolson, Ed, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, London, the Hogarth Press, 1975–1980, letters number 30, 1781, 1786, 2708, 2953, 2980, 3033, 3040, 3041, 3064, 3390, 3394, 3427, 3705.
^Little, G. (2012). "The People Must Have Plenty of Books: Lady Tweedsmuir's Prairie Library Scheme, 1936-40". Library and Information History Journal, 28(2), 103–116.
