He definitely had a mind of his own and didn’t even try to fit into the mold of what was expected. He knew what he wanted and he pursued it, whether it was his dream of writing or the woman he would marry.
Today is the birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson. He lived only forty-four years but what a legacy he left! Treasure Island, A Child’s Garden of Verse, Kidnapped, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
He was born in Scotland, traveled to San Francisco, and died in Samoa. But these are just the bare facts. Fleshing out those facts was a real, alive man who was loaded with talent and intended to follow his own path. His parents wanted him to be a lighthouse keeper which was in the family tradition, but Robert said, No. The woman he fell in love with was an American, Fanny van de Grift Osbourne, who was separated from her husband but he didn’t let that deter him. He followed her to San Francisco and he followed his dream of being a writer, and what a writer he was!
Mr. Stevenson should be an inspiration to all writers. He studied civil engineering and law but evidently, these things didn’t appeal to him. However, on the lighthouse question: I’d think sitting high atop one of those buildings, sea gulls wheeling above, the ocean pounding below, and the absence of most interruptions would be the perfect place to collect one’s thoughts and put them down on paper. Perhaps he had a restless spirit or wanted to experience more of life than a lighthouse offered.
His legacy is in the words he left us. They’ve brought joy into the lives of countless numbers of people. The writer of them is gone but his writings remain. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant,” he said. This is something that we, writers and non-writers, should remember.
Happy birthday, Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson.
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