. Stevensoniana; an anecdotal life and appreciation of Robert Louis Stevenson. Edited from the writings of Barrie [and others]. nt to school in 1859, but ill health rendered hisattendance irregular, and during the years 1862-63 hismother travelled with him a great deal on the Continent forhis healths sake. At school his bent of mind was displayedby his starting several manuscript magazines, and before hewas fifteen he had used up no small quantity of paper inscribbling stories, the most pretentious of which is said tohave had for subject the murder of Archbishop Sharpe. In1867 he went to
. Stevensoniana; an anecdotal life and appreciation of Robert Louis Stevenson. Edited from the writings of Barrie [and others]. nt to school in 1859, but ill health rendered hisattendance irregular, and during the years 1862-63 hismother travelled with him a great deal on the Continent forhis healths sake. At school his bent of mind was displayedby his starting several manuscript magazines, and before hewas fifteen he had used up no small quantity of paper inscribbling stories, the most pretentious of which is said tohave had for subject the murder of Archbishop Sharpe. In1867 he went to Edinburgh University, which he left with-out taking a degree, and ivhere his time was largelyspent in a highly rational system of truantry! Decliningin \%J\ to follow his father s profession, he read for theScots bar, to which he was called in fuly 1875. Somemonths Were spent in a law office, but his total practice as abarrister extended to four briefs, for which the fees did notreach double figures From 1873 ^^ 1879 his life waschiefly passed in travel, and his first two books were devotedto accounts of Continental a a 3^-5 5 C3 -- l< o5, a: z. •=? V-— ?i — /. C5 2 3 FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD ii Most people seem to know that R. L. Stevenson was baptizedLewis and not Louis, but very few know the reason for thechange. It was not, as is generally supposed, made by himselfout of some literary affection or affectation forforeign ways, but by his father. Thomas Stevenson r -gwas a sturdy Scots Tory, than whom no Tory in theworld is more desperate, and there was in Edinburgh a personof authority no less stringent a Radical. Now that this person,whose name was Lewis, a rare name in Scotland, should betaken by any one to have given his name to the boy, was morethan Thomas Stevenson could endure. And so the name wasspelled Frenchwise to divert suspicion. In later days, webelieve that R. L. S. hankered after the ancient name, but itmade no difference, since no one call
Size: 1267px × 1972px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorhammertonjohnalexande, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
