Perdita Buchan
Background
Buchan was born in 1940, the eldest child of the Anglo-Scottish author William Buchan (1916–2008), who more than fifty years later became Baron Tweedsmuir, by his first marriage in 1939 to Nesta Irene Crozier (1918–2009), the daughter of Charles Darley Crozier, a barrister. Her parents were divorced in 1946. On her father's side she has four half-sisters and three half-brothers, including John Buchan, 4th Baron Tweedsmuir, the novelist James Buchan, and Ursula Buchan, gardening columnist of The Daily Telegraph. On her mother's side she has a further half-sister, Valerie Gardner, and had a half-brother, Rawdon Perry, now deceased.[http://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Parry/6000000008615065311 Richard Parry] at geni.com, accessed 9 January 2016[http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=rawdon-parry&pid=149817323 Rawdon Parry] (obituary) at legacy.com, accessed 10 January 2016 Her other grandfather was the politician and novelist John Buchan, who had been Governor General of Canada.Burke's Peerage, volume 3 (2003), p. 3,965
A half-plate photograph of Buchan at the age of one month, with her mother, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw208500/Nesta-Irene-Buchan-ne-Crozier-later-Parry-Hon-Perdita-Caroline-Connolly-ne-Buchan Nesta Irene Buchan (née Crozier, later Parry); Hon. Perdita Caroline Connolly (née Buchan)] dated 17 January 1941 at npg.org.uk, accessed 9 January 2016 After her divorce, Buchan's mother married secondly Richard Parry (1916–1989), a Harvard-educated naval officer then working in London for the U.S. Maritime Commission,[https://web.archive.org/web/20160103154843/http://articles.philly.com/1989-11-24/news/26141028_1_antique-map-dealer-philadelphia-club-philadelphia-area R. Parry, 73, Antique-map Dealer], obituary at Philly.com, accessed 9 January 2016 and later moved with her daughter to the United States. They settled at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, where Nesta Parry had two further children, and at the time of her death was still living there.[http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/philly/obituary.aspx?n=nesta-crozier-parry&pid=126052231& Nesta Crozier Parry] at legacy.com/obituaries, accessed 9 January 2016
Life
Arriving in the US as a child, Buchan lived at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. For her college education she went to Radcliffe, where her subject was English and as a freshman she took archery for her compulsory sport. She graduated in 1962,Perdita Buchan, [http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/05/cliffe-notes.html 'Cliffe Notes], Harvard Magazine, May/June 2002, accessed 10 January 2016 and her first book, Girl with a Zebra, was published in 1966. A well-reviewed campus novel, its main characters are Emily and Blaise, students at Radcliffe and Harvard, who fall in love while Emily is looking after the biology department's zebra. A violent episode results in Emily and the zebra disappearing.Best Sellers, Vol. 26 (1966), p. 232[http://handbookkehand.eu/chemical-engineering-10/girl-with-a-zebra-42822.php Girl with a Zebra] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126095603/http://handbookkehand.eu/chemical-engineering-10/girl-with-a-zebra-42822.php |date=2016-01-26 }} at handbookkehand.eu, accessed 9 January 2015[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/perdita-buchan/girl-with-a-zebra/ Girl with a Zebra] at kirkusreviews.com, accessed 14 January 2015 After that, Buchan wrote short stories for The New Yorker.[http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/perdita-buchan Perdita Buchan] at newyorker.com/contributors, accessed 9 January 2016 From 1972 to 1974 she was a Bunting Institute Fellow in creative writing, and she went on to teach in the writing program at Rutgers University.Footnote to [http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/05/cliffe-notes.html 'Cliffe Notes], Harvard Magazine, May/June 2002, accessed 9 January 2016
In November 1968 Buchan married Edward Connolly, and they had a daughter. She and Connolly were divorced in 1977.
In 2003 she was living in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. She has also lived in Concord, Massachusetts, and is a Trustee of the Whitesbog Preservation Trust.[http://www.whitesbog.org/about-us/board-staff/ Board of Trustees & Staff] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219010037/http://www.whitesbog.org/about-us/board-staff/ |date=2015-12-19 }} at Whitesbog.org, accessed 10 January 2016
Her Utopia, New Jersey: Travels in the Nearest Eden (2007) is a study of eight utopian communities in the state of New Jersey in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj8xk Utopia, New Jersey: Travels in the Nearest Eden] at jstor.org, accessed 9 January 2016
Selected publications
- Girl with a Zebra (Scribner's, 1966)
- Called Away (Little, Brown, 1980)
- "'Cliffe Notes: a nostalgic look at a bygone world" in Harvard Magazine dated May/June 2002
- Utopia, New Jersey: Travels in the Nearest Eden (Rutgers University Press, 2007)
Notes
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External links
- Perdita Buchan, [http://curbed.com/archives/2014/12/04/when-louis-kahn-and-roosevelt-created-a-new-jersey-utopia.php When Louis Kahn and Roosevelt Created a New Jersey Utopia] dated December 4, 2014, at curbed.com
- Perdita Buchan, [http://curbed.com/archives/2015/07/15/ocean-grove.php Tracing a Jersey Shore Town's Secret Spiritual History] dated July 15, 2015, at curbed.com
- Perdita Buchan, [http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/05/cliffe-notes.html 'Cliffe Notes: a nostalgic look at a bygone world] in Harvard Magazine online for May/June 2002
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Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:People from Neptune Township, New Jersey
Category:Radcliffe College alumni
Category:Rutgers University faculty
Category:The New Yorker people
Category:20th-century American short story writers
Category:Novelists from New Jersey