I discovered recently – lord knows where, but I think it had something to do with moustaches…. Anyway, as I was saying, I discovered recently that there is a rather wonderful Robert Louis Stevenson Day, celebrated every year on his birthday which happens to be today, 13th November. So I thought I would join in a little, as RLS is an author who I’m keen to explore more of, having loved what I’ve read so far!
On my recent jaunt to Edinburgh (his home city) I was keen to look for traces, as I mentioned, and fortunately the very lovely Writers’ Museum had a whole room dedicated to him. The Museum itself was a beautifully atmospheric place, and I really felt the presence of RLS in the room – here are a few pictures from the visit:
The lovely Writers’ Museum
Way into the RLS room
One of the exhibits
Another exhibit!
I also discovered that the walk down the long hill from Henderson’s Salad Table to our holiday rental took me past Heriot Row, and it was at number 17 that Stevenson grew up. On my last night in Edinburgh I had a quick peep at the place (which is apparently a family home, but used for RLS events).
Heriot Row picture c. Scotiana
You can read more about the place here:
http://www.cityofliterature.com/a-to-z/17-heriot-row-stevenson-house/
Finally, I have been dipping randomly into the book of Selected Poems by RLS which I picked up at the Writer’s Museum and I wanted to share one rather poignant verse which really struck me:
I SAW RED EVENING THROUGH THE RAIN
I saw red evening through the rain
Lower above the steaming plain;
I heard the hour strike small and still,
From the black belfry on the hill.
Thought is driven out of doors tonight
By bitter memory of delight;
The sharp constraint of finger tips,
Or the shuddering touch of lips.
I heard the hour strike small and still,
From the black belfry on the hill.
Behind me I could still look down
On the outspread monstrous town.
The sharp constraint of finger tips,
Or the shuddering touch of lips,
And all old memories of delight
Crowd upon my soul tonight.
Behind me I could still look down
On the outspread feverish town;
But before me, still and grey,
And lonely was the forward way.
If you want to read more about the RLS Day, there is a site devoted to it here:
and of course there is masses more online. I’m just wondering to myself why it’s taken me quite so long to explore the work of this great Scottish writer more deeply! Happy RLS Day! 🙂
Nov 13, 2017 @ 07:30:18
That poem is very beautiful, thank you for sharing it. I didn’t go to the writer’s museum on the two occasions I visited Edinburgh, I shall have to go back.
Nov 13, 2017 @ 09:14:54
It is, isn’t it? I don’t know if I was aware of RLS’s poetry before now but I definitely like it very much. I only stumbled on the Writers’ Museum by accident but I definitely want to go back and give it more time!
Nov 13, 2017 @ 13:15:35
Lovely post, very fitting for RLS. His Child’s Garden of Verse probably introduces me to poetry, and may have been the first book I owned.
Caroline
Nov 13, 2017 @ 13:39:59
I must look out for that – I confess I don’t think I came across it in my childhood but I’ve heard good things!
Nov 13, 2017 @ 13:45:42
That seems a quintessentially Scottish poem. Also, I love the photographs. You may have mentioned this at some point, and I’ve simply forgotten, but did you read him as a child?
Nov 13, 2017 @ 13:48:30
It does seem to summon up the atmosphere of Scotland, definitely! And no, I don’t think I did read RLS as a child but I wish I had. “Jekyll” is marvellous, as are the poems I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to more of his short stories.
Robert Louis Stevenson Day - Tredynas Days
Nov 13, 2017 @ 14:25:10
Nov 13, 2017 @ 20:37:19
Some great pictures. This will be the third year I’ve read one of his books for RLS Day – a great excuse to revisit his work!
Nov 13, 2017 @ 21:12:03
Absolutely! I definitely want to make this an annual date! 🙂
Nov 14, 2017 @ 11:53:16
Oh, yes, the Child’s Garden of Verses – I think the only thing I’ve read of his! Terrible!
Nov 14, 2017 @ 14:48:16
Shocking! Time to explore further, I suggest! 😉
Nov 14, 2017 @ 23:34:04
Lovely post, he was a great writer indeed!
Nov 15, 2017 @ 09:20:28
He was – one I definitely want to spend more reading time with! 🙂
Nov 16, 2017 @ 10:32:49
“Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped” were great childhood favourites of mine, and both of them hold up quite beautifully even when read as an adult. Earlier this year, when I was recovering from illness, I would walk into town each morning, and spend all morning in a coffee shop reading “Treasure Island”. It is quite glorious stuff.
Many of his other short stories are also very good – “The Isle of Voices”, say, or “The Bodysnatcher”. And “Thrawn Janet”, written in Scots dialect, is among the finest of all ghost stories. I have often described “Olalla” as the kind of story Poe might have written had Poe been as good a writer as Stevenson. (Yes, I know … I was being deliberately provocative …!)
Back in primary school (in Kirkcaldy) in the late 60s, we had to memorise poems from Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses”. It’s the kind of thing that, we’re told, puts kids off literature, but that’s nonsense: I loved those poems, and so, as I remember, did my classmates.
Nov 16, 2017 @ 11:25:31
I must admit I’m not even sure if I’ve read TI or K, but I did love “Jekyll” and the short stories that were included in the volume – I seem to recall that “Olalla” and “Bodysnatcher” might well have been in there and were very effective. Poe is a great writer, but in prose style I suspect RLS is much better…. 😉
Alas, I don’t think we had that kind of poetry upbringing, and I do wish we’d been taught his verse. No, that certainly does *not* put a child off literature – I still love much that came my at that time.
Nov 16, 2017 @ 10:39:55
Also, one of the most moving passages in any film as a scene from the John Ford film “They Were Expendable”, in which John Wayne (yes .. John Wayne!) recites the following Stevenson poem over the body of a fallen comrade:
UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Nov 16, 2017 @ 11:26:30
It’s a powerful poem, and a tribute to RLS that it’s passed into common parlance. I suspect my OH, who has a weakness for early Westerns and John Wayne, will be well aware of this one… 🙂
Nov 19, 2017 @ 21:58:03
I love writers’ museums. I hadn’t thought about it, but Scotland would offer a whole new group of museums to visit. And now I must confess I haven’t read RLS.
Nov 20, 2017 @ 11:08:50
Scotland is *definitely* worth a visit – it has *so* much going for it. And RLS is worth your time too…. 😉
Nov 27, 2017 @ 05:55:47
I once owned a huge beautiful Victoria carving plate which had come from a dinner service owned by RLS!
And a book of their travels around the islands by his wife..
can’t find either now !!!!
Nov 27, 2017 @ 11:09:31
Wow! How amazing is that! And it’s always the way that you can’t find the thing you want most when you want it – at least in my house…. :s