R. B. Cunninghame Graham (Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham) Biography

Scottish author, born in London, educated at Harrow. Much of his writing is deeply informed by his experiences of the various South American countries in which he lived from 1870 to 1881. His numerous biographies of South American figures include Hernando de Soto (1903) and Pedro de Valdivia (1926). In 1886 he became Member of Parliament for North-West Lanark, which he represented until 1892. He was active in the emergence of British socialism and was the first president of the Scottish National Party upon its foundation in 1928. His literary reputation was established with Mogreb-el-Acksa (1898), an account of a journey to the Moroccan city of Tarudant, which impressed his friends Joseph Conrad and G. B. Shaw. Among his other works as a travel writer are A Vanished Arcadia (1901), a description of the decayed Jesuit settlement in Paraguay, and Cartagena and the Banks of the sinú (1920), on his explorations in Colombia. His volumes of short stories and essays include The Ipané (1899), Success (1902), Brought Forward (1916), and Mirages (1936). Biographical studies include A. F. Tschifelly's Don Roberto (1937).