Robert Williams Buchanan was an English poet, novelist and dramatist. Desperate for cash, Buchanan wrote a number of poems and novels that many felt were beneath his ability in order to earn more money.
Background
Buchanan was born on August 18, 1841, in Caverswall, Staffordshire, England. His parents were moderately well-to-do, with strong political convictions. His mother, Mary Williams, was the daughter of a radical lawyer from Stoke-on-Trent, and his father, also named Robert Buchanan, was a Scottish socialist editor.
Education
After attending Glasgow University for two years, Buchanan and his good friend David Gray made their way to London, intending to become important poets.
Buchanan’s father had gone bankrupt, and Buchanan’s first year in the city was doubtless one of deprivation, but by November 1861, he had gained financial footing by writing for newspapers, acting, and accepting hack writing jobs. As an undergraduate, he had published two volumes of poems, Poems and Love Lyrics (1858) and Mary, and Other Poems (1859), but in 1862 he published his first major book with Charles Gibbon, Storm-Beaten; or, Christmas Eve at the “Old Anchor” Inn. The collection of stories created no big stir among readers and critics, but it did enable Buchanan to break into the professional literary world. He capitalized on that by publishing some of his most significant poems in the 1863 collection, Undertones.
An ambitious volume, Undertones attracted much critical attention for Buchanan. The poems, a series of dramatic monologues in which Buchanan gives voice to the heroes and gods of the ancient world, emulate the styles of Keats, Tennyson, and Browning. The book was heartily praised by George Lewes, who was largely responsible for encouraging George Eliot’s talent, and gradually Buchanan was accepted into the circle of Victorian writers, including Browning, Eliot, and others.
After leaving London to work as a war correspondent in Denmark, Buchanan returned to England, but this time he moved to Sussex, where he composed London Poems (1866). This volume, which evoked from a distance the gritty tragedies of the London lower class, was one of his most critically applauded works, and for a time he continued to expand on its success. From Sussex, he moved to Oban in the Scottish Highlands, where he began to try his hand at the more lucrative genre of fiction. His first foray into this was The Land of Lome (1871), which spins the yarn of a fisherman’s daughter whose family members have either died or abandoned her. Buchanan, at that time, was poised for great fame as a poet and shaper of literary tastes.
But it was at this point that Buchanan became embroiled in the set of squabbles that were to bring down his career. As early as 1866, the year of his father’s death, he became distressed, and his emotional state of mind had an effect on his work.
Buchanan published pseudonymously for a while, but eventually, he returned to London to revive his career by publishing a literary journal called Light. The magazine quickly faltered, and Buchanan began to work with Chatto, a famous (and famously mercenary) publisher. Chatto had little use for Buchanan’s poetry and instead pushed him to compose in the more lucrative fields of drama and fiction.
Buchanan wrote his first play, Alone in London (1885), while on a trip to America. It was a financial success, though Buchanan felt it was literarily devoid of merit. When Buchanan returned to England for health reasons, however, he began to pursue financial success again. He wrote a series of critically panned plays, reportedly dashing off each play at a sitting. He also put out several novels, seeking a popular “hit.” He attempted to write more ambitious poetic work through the years, but by 1894 his theatrical speculations had left him bankrupt.
Buchanan struggled mightily to regain some financial footing, as well as some self-respect. In 1896, he published his most seriously conceived novel, Effie Hetherington. With Effie Hetherington, Buchanan recovered far enough to write several more books, even recuperating something of his early critical success. But he was never able to achieve financial independence again. He suffered a stroke in October of 1900 and died penniless the following June.
Throughout his life, Buchanan would pursue “the truth” as he saw it in the manner of a propagandist. But by doing so, and by engaging in political battles among the literati, he often lost sight of his literary goals.
Personality
Buchanan had long nurtured animosity toward the more rakish writers of his generation, especially when it came to his ongoing battle with Swinburne and Rossetti. Buchanan was a man of strong moral and social convictions, and he was angered by the poets who espoused a sort of hedonistic, amoral approach to poetry.
Connections
In November 1861, Buchanan married sixteen-year-old Mary Jay and adopted her baby sister Harriett, who would later write Buchanan’s biography.