Category:Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 to Thomas Stevenson, a civil engineer, and Margaret Isabella Balfour.
Stevenson actually began his career at Edinburgh University in 1867 studying to become an engineer, following in the footsteps of his father. Although he loved the outdoor aspect that engineering sometimes offered he hated the drudgery of office life. So finally in 1871 Stevenson told his father that he had no interest in engineering but rather wanted to pursue literature as a career.
But Stevenson had already taken up writing before 1871. In 1866 he anonymously published a historical essay; The Pentland Rising: a Page of History, 1666, his first published work. He also experimented with his own style by impersonating other authors. These works were never published in his lifetime but one verse drama written in 1868, in the style of Algernon Charles Swinburne, was privately published posthumously in 1928 as Monmouth: a Tragedy.
Stevenson was brought up as a Presbyterian, more specifically in the Calvinist tradition, but later came to reject the harsh views of the faith that his father espoused. But Stevenson’s Presbyterian childhood continued to remain an influence throughout his life and he was always deeply concerned with how a man should morally conduct his life.
After graduating university in 1875 Stevenson made a brief attempt at practicing law but quickly gave up the effort in favor of his passion to write. This passion led him to publish timeless works such as Treasure Island (1883) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). But other less publicly known works may be the real masterpieces of Stevenson’s work. The Amateur Emigrant (published in part in 1892 and in full in 1895 posthumously) gives an account of Stevenson’s journey to California where he would join he would-be wife and is considered by some to be his finest work. And “The Pavilion on the Links,” a short story published in 1880 was considered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "the high-water mark of [Stevenson’s] genius." With his health continually failing Stevenson decided on a cruise in the South Seas in 1888. He would spend the final six years of his life in this region of the world, two on voyages, and the last four in Samoa. While in Samoa he earned the Samoan name Tusitala, which means “writer of tales,” because of his continued literary efforts. Before his death on December 3, 1894 Stevenson had published notable works such as The Wrecker (1892), Island Nights’ Entertainment (1893), and The Ebb-Tide (1894).
Stevenson is buried atop Mount Vaea in Samoa. A few years after his death a tomb was built at the site which bears a bronze panel with an inscription of Stevenson’s poem entitled “Requiem.”
Sources:
Mehew, Ernest. “Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP. 16 Feb. 2014 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26438>.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Life.” The RLS Website. n.p. n.d. http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/life. 14 Feb. 2014.
Articles in category "Robert Louis Stevenson"
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