That is the the Karsh photograph of John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir) on the frontispiece of my edition of Pilgrim's Way. The first photo I ever saw of Buchan. His fractured skull scar not visible in profile. Angular. Weird lower lip thing.

The more famous, same sitting. The skull obtrusion prominent. The weird mouth thing and I never noticed the big chin mole. Not a handsome man but it's the eyes, so...menacing. I was startled that that hard, flinty man was the same gentle man who wrote Pilgrim's Way. I am still startled. I cannot reconcile image, and most below, and word.

As Governor-General of Canada with obsequious Mackenzie King, Prime Minister, President Roosevelt, and son. Click on the photograph to enlarge it. FDR doesn't know what to make of the guy. Buchan is benevolent but the president is like wtf. FDR is the only one not smiling in some manner.

Wtf indeed. Strange bird, strange looking bird, I should say.

Scar airbrushed.Not benevolent.The lower lip does add to the sinister look but, again, it's the eyes. I would never have dreamed...

FDR looks scared. Similar look to the one with Mackenzie King. Buchan looks scolding.

Look at Roosevelt studying him! He cannot make this guy out. Maybe he's looking at the scar, "How in hell did you get that?" You can see how wiry he was. A lifetime of adventuring.

Not benevolent but the eyes are not as menacing. He must have had bad teeth. He smiled and laughed a lot, just never for photographs.

A little softer.

Climbing to meet some divines in the Northwest Territories. Mother-fucker climbed like a mother-fucker.

Now, what is this? What are you doing? You look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa there and you're frightening the little divine. He's leaning back. What is this, your "Johnson treatment"? Gotta put up a photo of the Johnson treatment now.

Good. Good one. But where's the sequence with Teddy Green?

 Omg. Omg. lol. lolol.

 Anyway that's odd body language by Buchan. There is a lot about Buchan that is physically odd.

Buchan. John Buchan. Shaken not stirred. So strange.

Now that is the kindly, gentle Buchan of Pilgrim's Way.

And that.

And probably that. Maybe posed photographs made him look hard. He was a warm man.