(In “Thirteen Stories” the author puts forward in faultles...)
In “Thirteen Stories” the author puts forward in faultless prose and with critical sense, the distinctive aspects of people and places he met or knew throughout his voyages. Sometimes with crudeness and sometimes with his particular sarcasm the author frequently mixes his chronicles with his own reflections, which often reveal humanitarian feelings, an adventurous personality and a strong and unyielding character.
(Amply illustrated with drawings of period horses, their r...)
Amply illustrated with drawings of period horses, their riders and various pieces of equestrian equipment, "The Horses of the Conquest" remains one of the most important equestrian books ever published.
The North American Sketches of R. B. Cunninghame Graham
(These North American sketches have been edited and arrang...)
These North American sketches have been edited and arranged to give some idea of the Grahams’ travels in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico from 1879 to 1881.
Cunninghame Graham was a British politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was the first socialist in the Westminster Parliament and was jailed after assailing the police on Bloody Sunday 1887. In between times, he achieved literary fame as well.
Background
Cunninghame Graham was born on May 24, 1852, in London, England, United Kindom. He was the eldest son of William Cunninghame Graham (a major in the Scots Greys and a laird). His mother was the Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone-Fleeming, daughter of Admiral Charles Elphinstone-Fleeming of Cumbernauld and a Spanish noblewoman Doña Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiménez, who reputedly, along with her second husband Admiral James Katon, heavily influenced Cunninghame Graham's upbringing. Thus the first language Cunninghame Graham learned was his mother's maternal tongue, Spanish. He spent most of his childhood on the family estate of Finlaystone in Renfrewshire and Ardoch in Dunbartonshire, Scotland, with his younger brothers Charles and Malise.
Education
Robert was educated at Harrow public school in England. He finished his education in Brussels, Belgium.
After studies, Cunninghame Graham traveled in Morocco disguised as a Turkish sheikh to find the lost city of Taroudant but was captured by a Kurd, prospected for gold in Spain, befriended Buffalo Bill in Texas.
After the death of his father in 1883 he reverted to the Cunninghame Graham surname. He returned to the UK and became interested in politics. He was a liberal member of the British Parliament representing North-West Lanarkshire, Scotland from 1886.
He attended the protest demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887 that was broken up by the police and became known as Bloody Sunday. Graham was badly beaten during his arrest and taken to Bow Street Police Station. He was found guilty for his involvement in the demonstration and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment. When Graham was released from Pentonville prison he continued his campaign to improve the rights of working people and to curb their economic exploitation. He was suspended from the House of Commons in December 1888 for protesting about the working conditions of chain makers.
Graham retained a strong belief in Scottish home rule. He played an active part in the establishment of the National Party of Scotland (NPS) in 1928 and was elected the Honorary President of the new Scottish National Party in 1934. He was several times the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association candidate for the Lord Rectorship of the University of Glasgow, which he lost by only sixty-six votes in 1928 to Stanley Baldwin, the Conservative Prime Minister at the time. This event was pivotal in the founding of the National Party, and the eventual creation of the Scottish National Party in the 1930s.
He also worked as an interpreter, activist, horse trainer, and a gaucho. His many works were collected into anthologies. Subject matter included history, biography, poetry, essays, politics, travel and seventeen collections of short stories or literary sketches. Titles include Father Archangel of Scotland (1896 in conjunction with his wife Gabriella), Thirteen Stories (1900), Success (1902), Scottish Stories (1914) Brought Forward (1916) and others.
Robert Cunninghame Graham remained sprightly and rode daily even in his eighties. He continued to write, and held the office of President of the Scottish Branch of the P.E.N. Club, and involve himself in politics.
Graham was a strong supporter of Scottish independence. He retained a strong belief in Scottish home rule. He played an active part in the establishment of the National Party of Scotland.
He supported workers in their industrial disputes and was involved with Annie Besant and the Matchgirls Strike and the 1889 Dockers' Strike. Graham was a supporter of the eight-hour day and made several attempts to introduce a Bill on the subject. He made some progress with this in the summer of 1892, but he was unable to persuade the Conservative government, headed by Lord Salisbury, to allocate time for the Bill to be fully debated.
Interests
travel, horses
Connections
In 1879 Cunninghame married Gabriela Marie de la Balmondiere (an artist, writer, mystic, and botanist), she died in 1906.