Susan Tweedsmuir

01 June 1882 - 21 March 1977

Standard Name: Tweedsmuir, Susan

Birth Name: Susan Charlotte Grosvenor

Nickname: Susie

Married Name: Susan Charlotte Buchan

Titled: Susan Charlotte Buchan, Baroness Tweedsmuir

Pseudonym: Harmonia

ST , still Susan Buchan and married to a more famous author, John Buchan , began publishing in collaboration with him. From their joint novel, published just after the First World War, she continued on her own to biography, books for children, and plays, then to a novel of her own. As a widow she authored a travel book, edited unpublished work by her husband, returned to novel-writing, and found her niche (since much of her work is dominated by recovery of the past) with three volumes of slight and apparently haphazard (but charming) memoirs that took the form of retrospective essays.

Full profile

Connections

Connections	Author name Sort descending	Excerpt
Occupation	Henri-Frédéric Amiel	He became a philosopher and a professor of aesthetics, and published a number of books including a study of Germaine de Staël . His best known work, however, was his diary. It exerted an influence...
Friends, Associates	Elizabeth Bowen	EB loved Oxford (where she and her husband spent ten years) and became a social success there. She met and became friends with John and Susan Buchan , and it was through them that she...
Occupation	Ann Bridge	Since, however, writing seemed unlikely to yield her a livelihood, she went immediately to work as assistant secretary for the Charity Organization Society , Chelsea branch. This paid her twenty-three shillings a week, with hours...
Literary responses	Rhoda Broughton	Susan Tweedsmuir later recommended A Waif's Progress as having an irony and outspokenness absent fromRB 's other books, and felt it must have shocked and surprised her public. Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Edwardian Lady. G. Duckworth. 48
Family and Intimate relationships	John Buchan	He married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor on 15 July 1907 in London. As a member of English high society she was a surprising choice, but she was also serious-minded and interested both in the arts and...
Textual Production	John Buchan	Some of JB 's best-known later novels are Huntingtower, 1922 (which introduces the contemporary Glaswegian character Dickson McCunn), Midwinter, 1923 (historical), The Three Hostages, 1924 (another thriller), Witch Wood, 1927 (his...
Author summary	Catherine Carswell	CC is best known for her 1920 novel, Open the Door!, and her insightful critical biography of her close friend D. H. Lawrence . Her literary corpus consists of two novels, three biographies, and...
Friends, Associates	Catherine Carswell	CC 's friends included Scotswomen she grew up with—doctors Maud McVail and Isobel Hutton , sculptor Phyllis Clay , and musician Maggie Mather . Among her literary friends were Vita Sackville-West (whom she stayed with...
Textual Production	Catherine Carswell	At the time of her death, CC was researching a biography of Calvin and had been engaged to help Susan Tweedsmuir on the sorting of John Buchan 's papers. Carswell's work on the papers formed...
Literary responses	Catherine Carswell	Susan Tweedsmuir said CC was not only hard-working but also had a genius for editorial work. Pilditch, Jan. Catherine Carswell. A Biography. John Donald. 169
Friends, Associates	Mary Cholmondeley	According to Percy Lubbock , MC and her sisters entertained often and were charming and successful hostesses. Mary was nevertheless said to be a shy and modest woman who, while she found writing tedious, enjoyed...
Literary responses	Mary Cholmondeley	Red Pottage was highly controversial when it was published, and its negative depiction of the clergy was denounced from pulpits (though Queen Victoria was rumoured to have read and enjoyed it). One church periodical went...
Occupation	Florence Farr	Susan Grosvenor (later Tweedsmuir), who saw this production, was at first frankly bewildered by the chorus, which was like nothing she had ever seen or heard. But, she wrote later, soon the splendid poetry opened...
Literary responses	Marie Belloc Lowndes	This was one of the two books by MBL which was recommended to Ernest Hemingway by Gertrude Stein . (He too thought it was about Jack the Ripper.) Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Diaries and Letters of Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1911-1947. Editor Marques, Susan Lowndes, Chatto and Windus. 98 Susan Tweedsmuir later wrote of the...
Literary responses	Marie Belloc Lowndes	MBL feared her brother would dislike this book because of his unworldliness, his unawareness of his own fame, and his remoteness from contemporary reality. With the public, however, it was an immediate success, and sold...

Timeline

Autumn 1904 to summer 1907

Under the management of playwright and director Harley Granville-Barker and business manager J. E. Vedrenne , the Court Theatre became the first permanent home of the new drama.

1908

Crossriggs, a homely and unpretentious novel by Mary and Jane Helen Findlater , was, said Susan Tweedsmuir years later, one of those books that make a milestone in one's life.

1911

Flemington, a historicalnovel by Scottish poet and fiction-writer Violet Jacob (1863-1946), drew a long letter of praise from John Buchan .

Texts

Tweedsmuir, Susan. A Winter Bouquet. G. Duckworth, 1954.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. Cousin Harriet. G. Duckworth, 1957.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. Funeral March of a Marionette. Hogarth Press, 1935.

Tweedsmuir, Susan, and George Macaulay Trevelyan. John Buchan. Hodder and Stoughton, 1947.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. Lady Louisa Stuart. Hodder and Stoughton, 1932.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Edwardian Lady. G. Duckworth, 1966.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Lilac and the Rose. G. Duckworth, 1952.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Rainbow through the Rain. Hodder and Stoughton, 1950.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Scent of Water. Hodder and Stoughton, 1937.

Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Sword of State. Hodder and Stoughton, 1928.