More on Makars' Court - Edinburgh Museums

John Buchan (1875 - 1940)
We can only repay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt
to us.
[from an Address to the people of Canada on the Coronation of
George VI, 12 May 1937]
Born on 26 August 1875 in Perth, Buchan was greatly influenced by
his predecessors Scott and Stevenson, finding a rich source of
literary material in Scotland’s history and landscape. He wrote more
than 100 books, which included novels, biographies, histories, short
stories and verse, including The Thirty Nine Steps (1915). Also a
politician, he crowned his career as Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor-
General of Canada (1935-1940) and Chancellor of Edinburgh
University. He died in Canada on 11 February 1940.
Sponsored by the John Buchan Society, 2001.
Helen Cruickshank (1886-1975)
Helen Burness Cruickshank was born and educated in Angus, before
joining the Civil Service and working first in London and then, from
1912, in Edinburgh, where she lived until her death. Best known as
a poet, she was also a cultural and political activist, and a close
friend and supporter of many writers, including Hugh MacDiarmid
and Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Writing in both English and Scots her
work shows a range of mood with shrewd observations on human
life; her poem Spring in the Mearns (1935) is a tribute to Lewis
Grassic Gibbon:
Life goes on; the spirit
endures for ever,
wresting from death itself
a brave new birth.
Sponsored by The Friends of the City of Edinburgh Art Centre and
Museums, 2000.