Life
1841-1901 [Robert Williams Buchanan’ pseud. Thomas Maitland]; born
Staffordshire, settled at Rosspoint, Co. Mayo, 1874; departed from Ireland,
1877; contrib. ‘The Fleshly School of Poetry: Mr D. G. Rossetti’
to The Contemporary Review (1871), pseud. ‘Thomas Maitland’;
issued A Marriage by Capture (1896), The Shadow of the Sword (1876),
and several other novels including The Wandering Jew (1893),
which was attacked by Richard Le Gallienne in Daily Chronicle (11
Jan. 1893) and The Star (12 Jan. 1893), causing Buchanan to enter
into a correspondence proposing that Christianity was ‘played out’;
Father Anthony (1898) is his sole Irish novel; there is a life
by his sister-in-law and adopted dg. Harriet Jay (1903), whose Queen
of Connaught [1881] he dramatised. DNB IF SUTH OCIL
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Works
Father Anthony: A Romance of Today (London: T. Fisher Unwin 1898),
283pp., and Do. [2nd edn.] (London: John Long 1899; rep. edns.
incl. 1911, 1913, 1920); The Fleshly School and Other Phenomena of
the Day (London: Strahan & Co. 1872), ix, 97pp.; The Poetical
Works of Robert Buchanan, 3 vols. (London: H. S. King &
Co. 1874), with port.; Do. [another edn.] (London: Chatto &
Windus 1884), viii, 534pp.; The Complete Poetical Works, 2 vols.
(London: Chatto & Windus 1901); Selected Poems (London: Chatto
& Windus 1882), 298pp. [front. port. by Thomas Dalziel].
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- Archibald S. Walker, Robert Buchanan, The Poet of Modern Revolt: An Introduction to His Poetry (1901);
- Harriet Jay, Robert Buchanan: Some Account of His Life, His Life’s Work, and His Literary Friendships (1903).
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British Library (BML Catalogue to 1956) holds 88 titles including rep. edns., among which Father Anthony: A Romance of Today (T. Fisher Unwin 1898), 283pp; new eds. 1911; 1913; 1920; The Fleshly School and Other Phenomena of the Day (London: Strahan & Co. 1872), ix, 97pp.; [see also Under the Microscope, a reply to the charges made against Swinburne and others in Buchanan’s ‘The Fleshly School of Poetry’]; The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan [with port.] 3 vols. (London: HS King & Co. 1874); another Do., another edn. (London: Chatto & Windus 1884), viii, 534pp.; The Complete Poetical Works, 2 vols. (Chatto & Windus 1901); Selected Poems (London: Chatto & Windus 1882), 298pp. [front. by Thomas Dalziel]; also under Harriet Jay, My Connaught Cousins [Pref. by Robert Buchanan] (1883); and Robert Buchanan, Some Account of his Life, his Life’s Work, and his literary friendships (1903). Also Archibald S. Walker, Robert Buchanan, the poet of modern revolt. An introduction to his poetry (1901).
Eric Stevens Catalogue (1992) lists Robert Buchanan (of Fleshly School of Poetry fame), The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan, 2 vols. (Chatto and & Windus 1901), 534, 432pp. [£22]
Belfast Central Public Library holds six works incl. fiction, Father Anthony (1898); Ballads of Life: Love and Humour (1882); Idylls and Legends (1863); A Marriage by Capture (1896); A Look Around Literature (1887); Undertones (1865); Poems and Love Lyrics [q.d.]
W. B. Yeats reviewed a Buchanan’s novel The Wandering Jew (1893) in Bookman (April 1893) [See John Frayne, ed., Uncollected Prose, Vol. 1, (London: Macmillan 1970), p.263-66.]
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)