File:Robert Louis Stevenson (1915) (14804752813).jpg

Identifier: robertlouissteven00crus (find matches)
Title: Robert Louis Stevenson
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Cruse, Amy, 1870-1951
Subjects: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894
Publisher: London : George G. Harrap
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing Before Image:
mother in one of his rare expansive
moments, and I cannot think what I have done
to deserve so good a gift. His young stepson was
also a source of great delight to him. The boy
in Stevenson never died, though in the ordinary
business of life he made way for the more seriously
disposed man ; but he was never far away, and
in moments of relaxation he stepped naturally to
the front place, with the entire and unblushing
approval of the elder partner. For all his youth
and his wildness, this eternal boy sometimes did
good service ; it was he who gave Stevenson his first
popular success, for it was he who wrote Treasure
Island. The book appeared in November 1883,
and the stories of statesmen and critics who sat up
till the small hours of the morning to read it recall
the triumphant days of the Waverley Novels. Scott
himself never wrote anything more full of the robust
spirit of adventure than this book, the work of a
consumptive patient who could not brave a shower,
and must flee for his life before a fog.
98
Text Appearing After Image:
Portrait of Stevenson at Vailima 98
Photo J. Patrick

In Search of Health

One great sorrow clouded the latter part of this
year. In September came the news of the death of
Walter Ferrier, one of Stevenson's oldest friends.
The strange and sad career of this brilliant, gifted
young Scotsman is sketched in the essay " Old
Mortality," and this, with the letter to W. E. Henley,
written soon after the news came, shows how deep
was Stevenson's grief at this first breach in the inner
circle of his friends.
He looked eagerly for comfort to the promised
visit of W. E. Henley and Charles Baxter. They
came in January ; but after a week spent at ' La
Solitude ' it was found that this earthly paradise was
too small to accommodate the whole party in com-
fort. Stevenson therefore proposed that they should
all go and take a holiday together in some other
place. They went to Nice, and there he caught a
cold which brought on congestion of the lungs. The
doctors agreed that there was no hope, and advised
Mrs Stevenson to send for some member of the
family to be with her at the end.

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