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| Robert Louis Stevenson |
Robert
Louis Stevenson was a 19th
century writer. Born in Edinburgh Scotland in 1850, he suffered from
poor health due to tuberculosis all his life. He is most famous for
the books Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson
loved to travel and his wanderings inspired his writing. (He is
mentioned here with respect to his authorship of Jekyll and Hyde.)
The
family profession was lighthouse engineering, but it did not really
interest him. He attended Edinburgh University and studied
engineering to please his parents, but later changed to the study of
law. He felt drawn to be a writer and finally, near the end of his
schooling he started doing travel writing. He became known as a
master story teller writing fiction and non-fiction, travelogues,
essays, and poetry, but was best known as a hero of the adventure
tale.
One
of his most famous works, Treasure Island, was inspired by a drawing
Stevenson made for his 12 yr. old stepson. He drew a pirate map for
him and then started telling pirate stories about it. The tale was
later serialized in a magazine and his fame began to grow.
In
1888, The Stevenson family, he and his wife, and two stepchildren,
traveled to San Francisco, and many islands in the Pacific Ocean for
three years stopping in such places as Hawaii, Gilbert Islands,
Tahiti, and Samoa. They decided to settle in Samoa and built a home
there. Stevenson thought the island setting was good for his health
and for his imaginative writing. His South Seas writing showcases his
talent and he became a famous author. His adventure books are still
very popular, today.
Near
the end of his life, because of his poor health, Robert Louis
Stevenson moved to Samoa and he eventually died there. The Island
people referred to him as "Tusitala": The 'Teller
of Tales'. Before he died he
composed a requiem to be carved on his own gravestone-
"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will."
"This be the verse you grave for me;
Here he
lies where he longed to be;
Home is
the sailor, home from the sea
And the
hunter home from the hill."
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| Stevenson's house in Valima, Samoa. |
Information
from Www.biography.com and
other sources.
