STEVENSON 



5552 



STEVENSON 



Stevenson's father died during his infancy 

 and his mother married Thomas Smith, the 

 chief engineer of the Lighthouse Board. This 

 accounts for the trend of his inclination and 

 abilities which led to his succeeding to his 

 stepfather's position in 1796. 



On one of his tours of inspection as chief 

 engineer . Stevenson was accompanied by Sir 

 Walter Scott, who describes the famous Bell 

 Rock lighthouse in his diary. In addition to 

 his great work in behalf of safe navigation, 

 Stevenson was widely consulted on construc- 

 tion of roads, bridges, harbors, canals and rail- 

 ways. He died in Edinburgh. 



STEVENSON, ROBERT Louis BALFOUR (1850- 

 1894), a Scottish essayist, poet and writer of 

 fiction, born in Edinburgh, November 13, 1850, 

 of a well-to-do family. His father was a civil 

 engineer, and the son showed much interest in 

 that profession, 

 whiclj he was not 

 robust enough to 

 adopt. He 

 studied at the 

 University of Ed- 

 inburgh, though 

 his work was con- 

 stantly inter- 

 rupted by ill 

 health, received a 

 training in law, 

 and was admitted 

 to the bar in 1875. 

 However, he 

 turned from law 

 to literature, and 

 in 1878 published An Inland Voyage, in which 

 is described a canoeing journey in France and 

 Belgium. Critics recognized at once the charm 

 of the young writer's style, but the public gave 

 the graceful sketch little attention. In the 

 following year he published Travels with a 

 Donkey, the material for which had been fur- 

 nished by a trip through Southern France. 



His Marriage. In 1876 he had met Mrs. 

 Osbourne, the lady who afterward became his 

 wife, and in 1879 he learned that she was ill in 

 California. Deeply alarmed, he set out at once 

 on the trip across the Atlantic. As travel was 

 expensive and his means were small, he went as 

 a steerage passenger, and crossed the Continent 

 on an immigrant train; and of these experi- 

 ences' he made use in The Amateur Emigrant 

 and Across the Plains. Arrived in San Fran- 

 cisco he married Mrs. Osbourne, and after 

 some months spent in a desolate mining camp, 



ROBERT LOUIS 



STEVENSON 



returned with her and her son Lloyd to Scot- 

 land. His health, always far from robust, had 

 suffered severely from the strain of his journey 

 and his anxiety, and the years following his 

 marriage were wandering ones, spent in search 

 of strength. 



His Great Work. In spite of the ill health 

 that would have daunted a less courageous 

 man and the unfavorable conditions made un- 

 avoidable by his constant traveling, Stevenson 

 produced between 1880 and 1888 two collections 

 of delightful essays, Virginibus Puerisque and 

 Familiar Studies of Men and Books; a volume 

 of fanciful and entertaining stories, the New 

 Arabian Nights; the very popular Treasure 

 Island; Prince Otto, a pleasing romance; Dr. 

 Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Kidnapped, an excellent 

 and widely read story of Scotch life, and two 

 collections of poems, Underwoods and A Child's 

 Garden of Verses, the latter of which reveals 

 a remarkably sympathetic understanding of 

 child life. These little poems seem not merely 

 poems to a child or for a child, but by a child; 

 and they show in delightful fashion what must 

 have been the pleasures of Stevenson's lonely 

 childhood. 



Sought Far for Health. In 1888, still in 

 search of health, Stevenson went with his 

 family to Samoa, in the South Seas, where he 

 remained until his death. His home, at the 

 foot of Mount Vaea, he christened Vailima, 

 and his work in superintending the building 

 and improvement of it was a delight to him. 

 He acquired great influence with the natives, 

 and took an active interest in their politics, 

 attending councils, where he sat in state. The 

 most notable of his productions during this 

 later period were The Master of Ballantrae, 

 another story of Scotch life; David Balfour, a 

 sequel to Kidnapped, and the uncompleted 

 romances St. Ives and Weir of Hermiston, this 

 latter regarded by many critics as Stevenson's 

 greatest work. He died December 3, 1894, of 

 apoplexy, and the next day sixty natives car- 

 ried his body to the summit of Mount Vaea, 

 where he was buried. 



His Place in Literature. Stevenson is one of 

 the most fascinating personalities in the history 

 of English literature, largely because of the 

 courage which helped him to work diligently, 

 uncomplainingly and even cheerfully in the 

 face of great difficulties. Those who knew him 

 personally found it hard to judge fairly of the 

 writer because of the charm which the man 

 exerted. He ranks high, however, by reason 

 of his artistic, delicately wrought style and his 



