Robert Louis Stevenson was an extremely creative Scottish author, musician, and poet. My favorite book of his is Treasure Island. He was also a man who fell deeply in love. He met his future wife (Fanny Stevenson), in Paris in 1877 when she was visiting from the United States with her two children (one child had previously died). She was estranged from her husband and later divorced him due to his numerous infidelities and of course because she fell in love with Robert. Three years after they met in Paris, Stevenson moved to the U.S. and they quickly got married.
He was absolutely smitten and she was his muse. The first couple of years into their marriage his manuscript Treasure Island was published which put him on the world stage. Right after this he began working on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while at the same time dealing with a terrible cocaine addiction which he later conquered. He had health problems since birth and tended to self-medicate himself.
When he finished the manuscript he gave it to his wife to read (she was his biggest fan), and she liked it but she had what he thought were great ideas for changing the story around. He liked her ideas so much that he placed his manuscript into the fireplace and started over using her insight. It took a few years to finish but it was published in 1886 and of course became a major success.
They had quite the love affair and were married for 14 years but never had their own children. One night he was opening a bottle of wine and yelled out: “What’s that?” then fell to the floor. He was taken to a local hospital and died at the age of 44 from what doctors thought was a cerebral hemorrhage. Fanny never did figure out what his last words meant.
There are many amazing stories to this man’s life including how they lived on the island of Samoa for several years and they gave him a Samoan name that stood for: “Teller of tales.” To this day, some Samoans still sing a song based off of the beautiful poem Stevenson wrote about life and death that was inscribed on his tomb. If you enjoy biographies read more about Robert Louis Stevenson because he was an extraordinarily, complicated, man.
He was absolutely smitten and she was his muse. The first couple of years into their marriage his manuscript Treasure Island was published which put him on the world stage. Right after this he began working on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while at the same time dealing with a terrible cocaine addiction which he later conquered. He had health problems since birth and tended to self-medicate himself.
When he finished the manuscript he gave it to his wife to read (she was his biggest fan), and she liked it but she had what he thought were great ideas for changing the story around. He liked her ideas so much that he placed his manuscript into the fireplace and started over using her insight. It took a few years to finish but it was published in 1886 and of course became a major success.
They had quite the love affair and were married for 14 years but never had their own children. One night he was opening a bottle of wine and yelled out: “What’s that?” then fell to the floor. He was taken to a local hospital and died at the age of 44 from what doctors thought was a cerebral hemorrhage. Fanny never did figure out what his last words meant.
There are many amazing stories to this man’s life including how they lived on the island of Samoa for several years and they gave him a Samoan name that stood for: “Teller of tales.” To this day, some Samoans still sing a song based off of the beautiful poem Stevenson wrote about life and death that was inscribed on his tomb. If you enjoy biographies read more about Robert Louis Stevenson because he was an extraordinarily, complicated, man.
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