The famous Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 -1894, (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, Treasure Island and A Child’s Garden of Verses) lived life in relentless defiance of his dreadful respiratory health. At university, he showed no enthusiasm for study and devoted much energy to avoiding lectures, a view he and I had in common. He travelled widely in Europe and the United States; he even spent time in the Adirondacks. He often found himself near death, but was nursed back to health just in the nick of time. In his 40s, Stevenson and his wife moved to Samoa in the South Pacific in the hope of getting better and while there, he took the native name Tusitala, Samoan for "Teller of Tales". He was an iconoclast who rejected his parents’ religion, politics and social views. He invented the sleeping bag (sort of). He wrote 133 musical compositions. Nearly half of his original manuscripts are lost. A state park in California is named in his honor. He was sui generis, never an easy thing to be. Here’s why he is important in literary history.
© 2024 John Oliver
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