Amazon.co.uk: Customer Discussions: The Sunshine Quiz The Sunshine Quiz Sort: Oldest first | Newest first Showing 201-215 of 215 posts in this discussion Posted on 6 May 2011 15:26:32 BDT BOF © says: I was talking to a golf fanatic (who bored me sh*tless) in the cricket club over the weekend and the question of how many clubs came up I answered 18 he came back with 14, as I had put 14 on your quiz and been told 18 on the answers I had thought no more about it but his reply made me check up. I got this from 'wiki' "A maximum of fourteen clubs is allowed in a player's bag at one time during a stipulated round. The choice of clubs is at the golfer's discretion, although every club must be constructed in accordance with parameters outlined in the rules. (Clubs which meet these parameters are usually called 'conforming'.) Violation of these rules can result in disqualification." Methinks I need an extra point (and anyone else who answered 14). best bones K I love you - no sweat.

;-) best bones Mistress K asks the questions so the answers are as per her definition so there, cut the whinging. No complaints from me K, I've maintained my position in the pecking order. Toffeeman says: One last point...just try singing Happy Birthday with all three names.... And on a related subject, the song Happy Birthday by Altered Images is thirty this year..now how old do you feel. Try not to have a heart attack... but here's a Christmas Quiz. Answers are as per my answer sheet so no quibbling. Answers to me by 12pm on 21/12/11. Christmas Quiz 2011 Music 1. Child star Jimmy Boyd sang which hugely popular 1950's Christmas song, which was initially banned by the Catholic Church in Boston because it supposedly mixed sex and Christmas? 2. What is the English title of the carol written in 1818 by Austrian priest Josef Mohr originally called Stille Nacht? 3. The words "Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume breathes of life, of gathering gloom..." come from which Christmas carol? 4.

'And all the bells on earth shall ring, on Christmas day in the morning...' is from which Christmas carol? 5. In Coldplay's 2010 Christmas single video, the Latin phrase Credo Elvem Etiam Vivere (seen above the stage) loosely means what? (combining an ironic rock'n'roll myth, with a seasonal sentiment popularised by Greg Lakes's 1975 Christmas hit - and for two bonus points: name the Greg Lake song, and the Coldplay 2010 Christmas single)? 6. Who composed the music known as The Nutcracker Suite, for the Christmas themed ballet The Nutcracker, premiered in St Petersburg, 1892? 7. In the song 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas', how many swans were a-swimming? 8. Driving Home For Christmas was a 1988 hit single for which singer? 9. In which Christmas carol does this line feature: "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither"? 10. What was Queen's 1984 Christmas single called? 11. What Christmas-time song did James Pierpont compose in 1857? 12.

What is the title of biggest selling Christmas single, globally? 13. What Paul McCartney hit song video featured the First World War Christmas Truce meeting of German and British soldiers in no-man's land between the front line trenches? 14. Which Christmas carol includes the lyrics '...To save us all from Satan's power, when we were gone astray..'? 15. In what year was Band-Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas the UK Christmas chart-topping record? 16. How many gifts are given in total in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas? 17. What did Frosty The Snowman have for a nose? 18. In the song `Winter Wonderland', who do we pretend the snowman is? 19. In the traditional song, `Go Tell It On The Mountain', what are you supposed to go tell? 20. According to the song, `Frosty The Snowman', what kind of soul does Frosty have? Film and Television 1. Who was the first British monarch to broadcast a Christmas message to the nation? 2. Peter Auty sang Walking In The Air in what film? 3.

What is the surname of the family in the 1989 film 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'? 4. Who is the narrator in the 1966 TV special How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? 5. What was the title of the first Christmas TV special Peanuts cartoon? 6. Christmas Crackers was the first Christmas edition of which popular UK comedy series? 7. Who is the central businessman character in the film It's a Wonderful Life? 8. What is the name of Dorothy Gale's dog in The Wizard of Oz? 9. What is Virgil Hilts' nickname in the film The Great Escape? 10. The character Jack Skellington appears in which 1993 Tim Burton film? 11. In the movie, `Miracle On 34th Street', a man is on trial for claiming to be Santa Claus. What convinces the judge to rule in the man's favor? 12. The lyrics, "There's children throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads" are from which Christmas movie? Literature 1. Who are the four ghosts in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol? (one point for each correctly named ghost, and a bonus point for all four) 2.

Which popular poem was alternatively known as A Visit from St Nicholas? 3. Which American-born English poet, having first names Thomas Stearns, wrote the poem The Cultivation Of Christmas Trees? 4. 'Olive the Other... (what?)', is a Christmas book by Vivian Walsh and J Otto Seibold: Reindeer; Snowman; Otter; or Orangutan? 5. Complete the famous rhyming line which follows: "At Christmas play and make good cheer, ... ? 6. In Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, who was Scrooge's dead business partner? 7. Name the original eight reindeer from the 'Twas the night Before Christmas' poem? 8. Who wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas? 9. Who wrote Auld Lange Syne? 10. What is the name of Tiny Tim's father in the novel, `A Christmas Carol'? Food and Drink 1. What liqueur goes into making a 'snowball' cocktail? 2. Traditional in Germany at Christmas, what sort of food is stollen? 3. Which Christmas condiment is made from fruit sometimes referred to as marshworts? 4.

In the UK it is traditionally believed that eating what each day of the twelve days of Christmas brings happiness the following year: Sausage; Mince pie; Carrot; or Christmas cake? 5. Brandy is made from distilling what? 6. What is a baby Turkey more correctly called, other than a chick? Religion 1. On which date is Epiphany celebrated in the traditional Western calendar? 2. Which of the Wise Men was said to have brought the gift of gold for the baby Jesus? 3. 'Three Kings Day' is known by what numerical name in Britain? 4. The Latin word meaning 'coming' gave us what term which still refers to the Christmas period, and also to a particular tradition popular with children? 5. The early pagan religious winter festival celebrated by archaic Scandinavian and Germanic people, later absorbed into Christmas celebrations, is still referred to in what alternative word for the Christmas season? 6. The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus on or around 1 January celebrates specifically what happening to the baby Jesus? 7. Who is regarded as the first Christian martyr? 8. Who was said to have presented the baby Jesus with Frankincense? 9. What date is St Stephen's Day? 10.

True or false: Joseph was the one that told Mary she was going to have a baby. Pop Culture Christmas 1. Which Christmas slogan was introduced by Clarissa Baldwin of Dogs Trust in 1978? 2. Which charity in 1949 was the first to produce a Christmas card? 3. Which author and creator of Jekyll and Hyde, gave his birthday by formal deed to Anne Ide because she disliked her own birthday of December 25th? 4. Which hugely popular actor was born on Christmas day 1899? 5. American cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with creating the traditional image of which popular Christmas character? 6. Which actress singer who charted with Santa Baby and starred as Catwoman died on Christmas day 2008? History 1. Who banned Christmas in England between 1647 and 1660? 2. Which river did George Washington cross on Christmas night in 1776 in the American Revolutionary War? 3. What changed in 1752 which caused England to have a White Christmas less frequently thereafter? 4. The Christmas period of 1813-14 saw the last what in London? 5.

Yorkshireman William Strickland is believed to have brought the first what to Britain from North America in 1526? 6. In Victorian England what people were popularly called robins because of their red uniforms? 7. US President Franklin Pierce introduced what to White House Christmas tradition in 1856? 8. In which city was the Salvation Army founded? 9. Which US President banned Christmas trees from the White House? 10. What Christmas item was invented by London baker and wedding-cake specialist Tom Smith in 1847? 11. John Callcott Horsley designed what first commercial Christmas item in 1843? 12. Which traditional Christmas plant was once so revered by early Britons that it had to be cut with a golden sickle? Christmas Around The World 1. Which US state in 1907 was the last to declare Christmas a legal holiday? 2. The North Pole, said to be Santa's home, is located in which ocean? 3. In which country, the largest of its continent, is it said that finding a spider web on Christmas morning brings good luck, and so Christmas trees are decorated with artificial spider webs? 4.

In Mexico, it is said that wearing what colour/color underwear on New Year's Eve ensures finding new love the following year: Yellow; Green; Red; or Brown? 5. In which country does Santa have his own personal postcode HOH OHO? 6. In 2004, the post office of which country gave away twenty million free scented stickers, to make Christmas cards smell like fir trees, cinammon, gingerbread or honey wax? 7. Which two states in the US have towns called Christmas? 8. Before the tradition of hanging stockings up at Christmas what did Dutch children hang by the fireside? 9. In which country is it a tradition to hide all brooms in the house on Christmas Eve? 10. London's Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is traditionally given by which country? 11. What is New Year's Eve called in Scotland? 12. Which country did St Nicholas come from? Generally Christmas 1. Christmas Crackers is cockney rhyming slang for which part of anatomy? 2. What is the chemical formula of snow? 3. What red-blooming Christmas plant came originally from Mexico? 4. What is the birth sign of people born on 25 December? 5.

'Nadolig Llawen' means Merry Christmas in which western European language? 6. What Christmas item takes its name from the old French word estincelle, meaning spark? 7. From what does the month of December take its name? 8. What colour are the berries of the mistletoe plant? Krytical says: I'm sure the meager few of you who decided to brave it are eager for the answers... so here they are: Christmas Quiz 2011 Music 1. Child star Jimmy Boyd sang which hugely popular 1950's Christmas song, which was initially banned by the Catholic Church in Boston because it supposedly mixed sex and Christmas? I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus 2. What is the English title of the carol written in 1818 by Austrian priest Josef Mohr originally called Stille Nacht? Silent Night 3. The words "Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume breathes of life, of gathering gloom..." come from which Christmas carol? We Three Kings of Orient Are (composed by Rev John Henry Hopkins, 1857) 4.

'And all the bells on earth shall ring, on Christmas day in the morning...' is from which Christmas carol? I Saw Three Ships 5. In Coldplay's 2010 Christmas single video, the Latin phrase Credo Elvem Etiam Vivere (seen above the stage) loosely means what (combining an ironic rock'n'roll myth, with a seasonal sentiment popularised by Greg Lakes's 1975 Christmas hit - and for two bonus points: name the Greg Lake song, and the Coldplay 2010 Christmas single)? I Believe Elvis Lives (Greg Lake's song - I Believe In Father Christmas; Coldplay's 2010 Xmas single - Christmas Lights) 6. Who composed the music known as The Nutcracker Suite, for the Christmas themed ballet The Nutcracker, premiered in St Petersburg, 1892? Tchaikovsky 7. In the song 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas', how many swans were a-swimming? Seven 8. Driving Home For Christmas was a 1988 hit single for which singer? Chris Rea 9.

In which Christmas carol does this line feature: "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither"? Good King Wenceslas 10. What was Queen's 1984 Christmas single called? Thank God it's Christmas 11. What Christmas-time song did James Pierpont compose in 1857? Jingle Bells (or, One Horse Open Sleigh) 12. What is the title of biggest selling Christmas single, globally? White Christmas (by Bing Crosby) 13. What Paul McCartney hit song video featured the First World War Christmas Truce meeting of German and British soldiers in no-man's land between the front line trenches? Pipes of Peace 14. Which Christmas carol includes the lyrics '...To save us all from Satan's power, when we were gone astray..'? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 15. In what year was Band-Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas the UK Christmas chart-topping record? 1984 16. How many gifts are given in total in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas? 364 17. What did Frosty The Snowman have for a nose?

Button 18. In the song `Winter Wonderland', who do we pretend the snowman is? Parson Brown 19. In the traditional song, `Go Tell It On The Mountain', what are you supposed to go tell? That Jesus Christ is born 20. According to the song, `Frosty The Snowman', what kind of soul does Frosty have? A jolly happy one Film and Television 1. Who was the first British monarch to broadcast a Christmas message to the nation? George the Fifth (in 1932) 2. Peter Auty sang Walking In The Air in what film? The Snowman 3. What is the surname of the family in the 1989 film 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'? Griswold 4. Who is the narrator in the 1966 TV special How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Boris Karloff 5. What was the title of the first Christmas TV special Peanuts cartoon? A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) 6. Christmas Crackers was the first Christmas edition of which popular UK comedy series? Only Fools and Horses 7.

Who is the central businessman character in the film It's a Wonderful Life? George Bailey (played by James Stewart) 8. What is the name of Dorothy Gale's dog in The Wizard of Oz? Toto 9. What is Virgil Hilts' nickname in the film The Great Escape? The Cooler King 10. The character Jack Skellington appears in which 1993 Tim Burton film? The Nightmare before Christmas 11. In the movie, `Miracle On 34th Street', a man is on trial for claiming to be Santa Claus. What convinces the judge to rule in the man's favor? The Post Office give all the mail addressed to Santa Claus to Kris Kringle 12. The lyrics, "There's children throwing snowballs instead of throwing heads" are from which Christmas movie? The Nightmare Before Christmas Literature 1. Who are the four ghosts in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol? Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Yet to Come, and Jacob Marley (one point for each correctly named ghost, and a bonus point for all four) 2. Which popular poem was alternatively known as A Visit from St Nicholas? 'Twas The Night before Christmas 3.

Which American-born English poet, having first names Thomas Stearns, wrote the poem The Cultivation Of Christmas Trees? T S Eliot 4. 'Olive the Other... (what?)', is a Christmas book by Vivian Walsh and J Otto Seibold: Reindeer; Snowman; Otter; or Orangutan? Reindeer 5. Complete the famous rhyming line which follows: "At Christmas play and make good cheer, ... ? For Christmas comes but once a year 6. In Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, who was Scrooge's dead business partner? Jacob Marley 7. Name the original eight reindeer from the 'Twas the night Before Christmas' poem? Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donner, Blitzen (or Dunder and Blixem - Incidentally Donner and Blizten mean Thunder and Lightning in German.) 8. Who wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Dr Seuss 9. Who wrote Auld Lange Syne? Robert Burns 10. What is the name of Tiny Tim's father in the novel, `A Christmas Carol'?

Bob Cratchett Food and Drink 1. What liqueur goes into making a 'snowball' cocktail? Advocaat (or advokatt, pronounced 'advocar' - normally a blend of brandy, egg yolks, vanilla and sometimes other ingredients.) 2. Traditional in Germany at Christmas, what sort of food is stollen? Cake 3. Which Christmas condiment is made from fruit sometimes referred to as marshworts? Cranberry sauce 4. In the UK it is traditionally believed that eating what each day of the twelve days of Christmas brings happiness the following year: Sausage; Mince pie; Carrot; or Christmas cake? Mince pie 5. Brandy is made from distilling what? Wine 6. What is a baby Turkey more correctly called, other than a chick? Poult Religion 1. On which date is Epiphany celebrated in the traditional Western calendar? 6th January 2. Which of the Wise Men was said to have brought the gift of gold for the baby Jesus? Melchior 3. 'Three Kings Day' is known by what numerical name in Britain? Twelfth Night 4.

The Latin word meaning 'coming' gave us what term which still refers to the Christmas period, and also to a particular tradition popular with children? Advent 5. The early pagan religious winter festival celebrated by archaic Scandinavian and Germanic people, later absorbed into Christmas celebrations, is still referred to in what alternative word for the Christmas season? Yule (or Yule-tide) 6. The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus on or around 1 January celebrates specifically what happening to the baby Jesus? Circumcision 7. Who is regarded as the first Christian martyr? St Stephen 8. Who was said to have presented the baby Jesus with Frankincense? Balthazar 9. What date is St Stephen's Day? 26th December 10. True or false: Joseph was the one that told Mary she was going to have a baby. False Pop Culture Christmas 1. Which Christmas slogan was introduced by Clarissa Baldwin of Dogs Trust in 1978? A Dog Is For Life, Not Just For Christmas 2. Which charity in 1949 was the first to produce a Christmas card? UNICEF 3.

Which author and creator of Jekyll and Hyde, gave his birthday by formal deed to Anne Ide because she disliked her own birthday of December 25th? Robert Louis Stevenson 4. Which hugely popular actor was born on Christmas day 1899? Humphrey Bogart 5. American cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with creating the traditional image of which popular Christmas character? Santa Claus (Father Christmas) 6. Which actress singer who charted with Santa Baby and starred as Catwoman died on Christmas day 2008? Eartha Kitt History 1. Who banned Christmas in England between 1647 and 1660? Oliver Cromwell 2. Which river did George Washington cross on Christmas night in 1776 in the American Revolutionary War? Delaware 3. What changed in 1752 which caused England to have a White Christmas less frequently thereafter? The calendar (the English adoption of the Gregorian calendar, replacing the Julian calendar, shifted Christmas day back 12 days - and all the other days too of course - 11 days were skipped in 1752 and a further day in 1800.) 4.

The Christmas period of 1813-14 saw the last what in London? Christmas Fair on a frozen River Thames (known as a Frost Fair) 5. Yorkshireman William Strickland is believed to have brought the first what to Britain from North America in 1526? Turkey 6. In Victorian England what people were popularly called robins because of their red uniforms? Postmen 7. US President Franklin Pierce introduced what to White House Christmas tradition in 1856? Christmas tree 8. In which city was the Salvation Army founded? London (1865, originally the Christian Mission, by William Booth) 9. Which US President banned Christmas trees from the White House? Theodore Roosevelt 10. What Christmas item was invented by London baker and wedding-cake specialist Tom Smith in 1847? Christmas cracker 11. John Callcott Horsley designed what first commercial Christmas item in 1843? Christmas card 12. Which traditional Christmas plant was once so revered by early Britons that it had to be cut with a golden sickle? Mistletoe Christmas Around The World 1.

Which US state in 1907 was the last to declare Christmas a legal holiday? Oklahoma 2. The North Pole, said to be Santa's home, is located in which ocean? Arctic Ocean 3. In which country, the largest of its continent, is it said that finding a spider web on Christmas morning brings good luck, and so Christmas trees are decorated with artificial spider webs? Ukraine 4. In Mexico, it is said that wearing what colour/color underwear on New Year's Eve ensures finding new love the following year: Yellow; Green; Red; or Brown? Red 5. In which country does Santa have his own personal postcode HOH OHO? Canada 6. In 2004, the post office of which country gave away twenty million free scented stickers, to make Christmas cards smell like fir trees, cinnamon, gingerbread or honey wax? Germany 7. Which two states in the US have towns called Christmas? Arizona and Florida 8. Before the tradition of hanging stockings up at Christmas what did Dutch children hang by the fireside? Shoes 9. In which country is it a tradition to hide all brooms in the house on Christmas Eve?

Norway (according to legend, witches would steal them otherwise) 10. London's Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is traditionally given by which country? Norway 11. What is New Year's Eve called in Scotland? Hogmanay 12. Which country did St Nicholas come from? Turkey Generally Christmas 1. Christmas Crackers is cockney rhyming slang for which part of anatomy? Testicles 2. What is the chemical formula of snow? H2O 3. What red-blooming Christmas plant came originally from Mexico? Poinsettia (Euphorbia Pulcherrima) 4. What is the birth sign of people born on 25 December? Capricorn 5. 'Nadolig Llawen' means Merry Christmas in which western European language? Welsh 6. What Christmas item takes its name from the old French word estincelle, meaning spark? Tinsel 7. From what does the month of December take its name? Ten (Latin, decem - it was the tenth month of the early Roman calendar) 8. What colour are the berries of the mistletoe plant?

White Robert Louis Stevenson : Wikis (The Full Wiki) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert Louis Stevenson Edgar Allan Poe Influenced H. Rider Haggard , Jorge Luis Borges , Javier Marías , Ernest Hemingway , Rudyard Kipling , Vladimir Nabokov , J. M. Barrie , Michael de Larrabeiti Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer . Stevenson has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges , Ernest Hemingway , Rudyard Kipling , Marcel Schwob , Vladimir Nabokov , [1] J. M. Barrie , [2] and G. K. Chesterton , who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins ".

[3] Contents Life Childhood Stevenson was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson [4] at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh , Scotland, on 13 November 1850, to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer , and his wife Margaret, born Margaret Isabella Balfour (1829–1897). [5] Lighthouse design was the family profession: Thomas's own father was the famous Robert Stevenson , and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Smith , and brothers Alan and David were also among those in the business. [6] On Margaret's side, the family were gentry, tracing their name back to an Alexander Balfour, who held the lands of Inchrye in Fife in the fifteenth century. Her father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton , [7] and Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his house. "Now I often wonder", says Stevenson, "what I inherited from this old minister.

I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons , and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them." [8] Robert Louis Stevenson at the age of seven Both Balfour and his daughter had a "weak chest" and often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp and chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1853. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was eleven. Illness would be a recurrent feature of his adult life, and left him extraordinarily thin. [9] Contemporary views were that he had tuberculosis , but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis [10] or even sarcoidosis . [11] Stevenson's parents were both devout and serious Presbyterians , but the household was not incredibly strict. His nurse, Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy), [12] was more fervently religious.

Her Calvinism and folk beliefs were an early source of nightmares for the child; and he showed a precocious concern for religion. [13] But she also cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from Bunyan and the Bible as he lay sick in bed, and telling tales of the Covenanters . Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in the poem "The Land of Counterpane" in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) [14] and dedicated the book to his nurse. [15] An only child, strange-looking and eccentric, Stevenson found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at six, a pattern repeated at eleven, when he went on to the Edinburgh Academy ; but he mixed well in lively games with his cousins in summer holidays at the Colinton manse. [16] In any case, his frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, and he was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, first learning at seven or eight; but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse. [17] Throughout his childhood he was compulsively writing stories.

His father was proud of this interest: he had himself written stories in his spare time until his own father found them and told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business". [6] He paid for the printing of Robert's first publication at sixteen, an account of the covenanters' rebellion, published on its two hundredth anniversary, The Pentland Rising: a Page of History, 1666 (1866). [18] University It was expected that Stevenson's writing would remain a sideline; and in November 1867 he entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. He showed from the start no enthusiasm for his studies and devoted much energy to avoiding lectures. This time was more important for the friendships he made: with other students in the Speculative Society (an exclusive debating club), particularly with Charles Baxter, who would become Stevenson's financial agent; and with one professor, Fleeming Jenkin , whose house staged amateur drama in which Stevenson took part, and whose biography he would later write.

[19] Perhaps most important at this point in his life was a cousin, Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson (known as "Bob"), a lively and light-hearted young man, who instead of the family profession had chosen to study art. [20] Each year during vacations, Stevenson travelled to inspect the family's engineering works – to Anstruther and Wick in 1868, with his father on his official tour of Orkney and Shetland islands lighthouses in 1869, for three weeks to the island of Earraid in 1870. He enjoyed the travels, but more for the material they gave for his writing than for any engineering interest: the voyage with his father pleased him because a similar journey of Walter Scott with Robert Stevenson had provided the inspiration for The Pirate . [21] In April 1871, he announced to his father his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though the elder Stevenson was naturally disappointed, the surprise cannot have been great, and Stevenson's mother reported that he was "wonderfully resigned" to his son's choice.

To provide some security, it was agreed that Stevenson should read Law (again at Edinburgh University) and be called to the Scottish bar. [22] Years later, in his poetry collection Underwoods (1887), he looked back on how he turned away from the family profession: [23] Say not of me that weakly I declined The labours of my sires, and fled the sea, The towers we founded and the lamps we lit, But rather say: In the afternoon of time A strenuous family dusted from its hands The sand of granite, and beholding far Along the sounding coast its pyramids And tall memorials catch the dying sun, Smiled well content, and to this childish task Around the fire addressed its evening hours. In other respects too, Stevenson was moving away from his upbringing. His dress became more Bohemian : he already wore his hair long, but he now took to wearing a velveteen jacket and rarely attended parties in conventional evening dress. [24] Within the limits of a strict allowance, he visited cheap pubs and brothels. [25] More importantly, he had come to reject Christianity.

In January 1873, his father came across the constitution of the LJR (Liberty, Justice, Reverence) club of which Stevenson with his cousin Bob was a member, which began "Disregard everything our parents have taught us". Questioning his son about his beliefs, he discovered the truth, leading to a long period of dissension with both parents: [26] What a damned curse I am to my parents! as my father said "You have rendered my whole life a failure". As my mother said "This is the heaviest affliction that has ever befallen me". O Lord, what a pleasant thing it is to have damned the happiness of (probably) the only two people who care a damn about you in the world. Early writing and travels The author, c. 1876 In late 1873, on a visit to a cousin in England, Stevenson made two new friendships that were to be of great importance to him, Sidney Colvin and Fanny (Frances Jane) Sitwell. Sitwell was a woman of thirty four, with a young son, separated from her husband.

She attracted the devotion of many who met her, including Colvin, who eventually married her in 1901. Stevenson was another of those drawn to her, and over several years they kept up a heated correspondence, in which Stevenson wavered between the role of a suitor and a son (he came to address her as "Madonna"). [27] Colvin became Stevenson's literary adviser, and after his death was the first editor of his letters. Soon after their first meeting he had placed Stevenson's first paid contribution, an essay, "Roads", in The Portfolio. [28] Stevenson was soon active in London literary life, becoming acquainted with many of the writers of the time, including Andrew Lang , Edmund Gosse , [29] and Leslie Stephen , the editor of the Cornhill Magazine , who took an interest in Stevenson's work. Stephen in turn would introduce him to a more important friend: visiting Edinburgh in 1875, he took Stevenson with him to visit a patient at the Edinburgh Infirmary , William Henley .

Henley, an energetic and talkative man with a wooden leg, became a close friend and occasional literary collaborator for many years, until in 1888 a quarrel broke up the friendship. He is often seen as providing a partial model for the character of Long John Silver in Treasure Island. [30] In November 1873, Stevenson had a physical collapse and was sent for his health to Menton on the French Riviera . He returned in better health in April 1874, and settled down to his studies, but he would often return to France in the coming years. [31] He made long and frequent trips to the neighbourhood of the Forest of Fontainebleau , staying at Barbizon , Grez-sur-Loing and Nemours , becoming a member of the artists' colonies there, as well as to Paris to visit galleries and the theatres. [32] He did qualify for the Scottish bar in July 1875; and his father added a brass plate with "R. L. Stevenson, Advocate" to the Heriot Row house. But although his law studies would influence his books, he never practised law.

[33] All his energies were now in travel and writing. One of his journeys, a canoe voyage in Belgium and France with Sir Walter Simpson, a friend from the Speculative Society and frequent travel companion, was the basis of his first real book, An Inland Voyage (1878). [34] Marriage Fanny Vandergrift Osbourne, c. 1876 The canoe voyage with Simpson brought Stevenson to Grez in September 1876; and here he first met Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne (1840-1914). Born in Indianapolis , she had married at the age of seventeen and soon moved with her husband, Samuel Osbourne, to California. She had three children by the marriage, Isobel, the eldest, Lloyd and Hervey (who died in 1875); but anger over infidelities by her husband led to a number of separations and in 1875 she had taken her children to France, where she and Isobel studied art. [35] Although Stevenson returned to Britain shortly after this first meeting, Fanny apparently remained in his thoughts, and he wrote an essay "On falling in love" for the Cornhill Magazine.

[36] They met again early in 1877 and became lovers. Stevenson spent much of the following years with her and her children in France. [37] Then, in August 1878, Fanny returned to her home in San Francisco, California . Stevenson at first remained in Europe, making the walking trip that would form the basis for Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879); but in August 1879, he set off to join her, against the advice of his friends and without notifying his parents. He took second class passage on the steamship Devonia, in part to save money, but also to learn how others travelled and to increase the adventure of the journey. [38] From New York City he travelled overland by train to California. He later wrote about the experience in The Amateur Emigrant . Although it was good experience for his literature, it broke his health, and he was near death when he arrived in Monterey . He was nursed back to health by some ranchers there.

By December 1879 he had recovered his health enough to continue to San Francisco, where for several months he struggled "all alone on forty-five cents a day, and sometimes less, with quantities of hard work and many heavy thoughts," [39] in an effort to support himself through his writing, but by the end of the winter his health was broken again, and he found himself at death's door. Vandegrift — now divorced and recovered from her own illness — came to Stevenson's bedside and nursed him to recovery. "After a while," he wrote, "my spirit got up again in a divine frenzy, and has since kicked and spurred my vile body forward with great emphasis and success." [40] When his father heard of his condition he cabled him money to help him through this period. In May 1880, Stevenson married Fanny although, as he said, he was "a mere complication of cough and bones, much fitter for an emblem of mortality than a bridegroom." [41] With his new wife and her son, Lloyd, he travelled north of San Francisco to Napa Valley , and spent a summer honeymoon at an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena .

He wrote about this experience in The Silverado Squatters . He met Charles Warren Stoddard , co-editor of the Overland Monthly and author of South Sea Idylls, who urged Stevenson to travel to the south Pacific, an idea which would return to him many years later. In August 1880 he sailed with his family from New York back to Britain, and found his parents and his friend Sidney Colvin on the wharf at Liverpool , happy to see him return home. Gradually his new wife was able to patch up differences between father and son and make herself a part of the new family through her charm and wit. Attempted settlement in Europe and the U.S. Stevenson's " Cure Cottage " in Saranac Lake For the next seven years, between 1880 and 1887, Stevenson searched in vain for a place of residence suitable to his state of health. He spent his summers at various places in Scotland and England, including Westbourne, Dorset , a residential area in Bournemouth . There he lived in a dwelling he renamed Skerryvore after a lighthouse, the tallest in Scotland, built by his uncle Alan Stevenson many years earlier.

For his winters, he escaped to sunny France, and lived at Davos-Platz [42] and the Chalet de Solitude at Hyeres , where, for a time, he enjoyed almost complete happiness. "I have so many things to make life sweet for me," he wrote, "it seems a pity I cannot have that other one thing — health. But though you will be angry to hear it, I believe, for myself at least, what is is best. I believed it all through my worst days, and I am not ashamed to profess it now." [43] In spite of his ill health he produced the bulk of his best known work during these years: Treasure Island , his first widely popular book; Kidnapped ; Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , the story which established his wider reputation; and two volumes of verse, A Child's Garden of Verses and Underwoods . At Skerryvore he gave a copy of Kidnapped to his dear friend and frequent visitor, Henry James . [44] On the death of his father in 1887, Stevenson felt free to follow the advice of his physician to try a complete change of climate.

He started with his mother and family for Colorado ; but after landing in New York they decided to spend the winter at Saranac Lake , in the Adirondacks . During the intensely cold winter Stevenson wrote a number of his best essays, including Pulvis et Umbra, he began The Master of Ballantrae , and lightheartedly planned, for the following summer, a cruise to the southern Pacific Ocean. "The proudest moments of my life," he wrote, "have been passed in the stern-sheets of a boat with that romantic garment over my shoulders." [45] Journey to the Pacific The author with King Kalākaua. Honolulu , Hawaii, 1889 In June 1888, Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco and set sail with his family from San Francisco.

The vessel "plowed her path of snow across the empty deep, far from all track of commerce, far from any hand of help." [46] The salt sea air and thrill of adventure for a time restored his health; and for nearly three years he wandered the eastern and central Pacific, visiting important island groups, stopping for extended stays at the Hawaiian Islands where he became a good friend of King Kalākaua , with whom Stevenson spent much time. Furthermore, Stevenson befriended the king's niece, Princess Victoria Kaiulani , who was of Scottish heritage . He also spent time at the Gilbert Islands , Tahiti , New Zealand and the Samoan Islands . During this period he completed The Master of Ballantrae , composed two ballads based on the legends of the islanders, and wrote The Bottle Imp . He also witnessed the Samoan crisis . The experience of these years is preserved in his various letters and in The South Seas. A second voyage on the Equator followed in 1889 with Lloyd Osbourne accompanying them.

It was also from this period that one particular open letter stands as testimony to his activism and indignation at the pettiness of such 'powers that be' as a Presbyterian minister in Honolulu named Rev. Dr. Hyde. During his time in the Hawaiian Islands, Stevenson had visited Molokai and the leper colony there, shortly after the demise of Father Damien . When Dr. Hyde wrote a letter to a fellow clergyman speaking ill of Father Damien, Stevenson wrote a scathing open letter of rebuke to Dr. Hyde. Soon afterwards in April 1890 Stevenson left Sydney on the Janet Nicoll and went on his third and final voyage among the South Seas islands. [47] Last years The author with his wife and their household in Vailima, Samoa , c. 1890 Stevenson's birthday fete at Vailima Stevenson's tomb on Mt. Vaea c.1909 In 1890 he purchased four hundred acres (about 1.6 square kilometres) of land in Upolu , one of the Samoan islands. Here, after two aborted attempts to visit Scotland, he established himself, after much work, upon his estate in the village of Vailima .

Stevenson himself adopted the native name Tusitala ( Samoan for "Teller of Tales", i.e. a storyteller). His influence spread to the Samoans, who consulted him for advice, and he soon became involved in local politics. He was convinced the European officials appointed to rule the Samoans were incompetent, and after many futile attempts to resolve the matter, he published A Footnote to History. This was such a stinging protest against existing conditions that it resulted in the recall of two officials, and Stevenson feared for a time it would result in his own deportation. When things had finally blown over he wrote to Colvin, who came from a family of distinguished colonial administrators, "I used to think meanly of the plumber; but how he shines beside the politician!" [48] He was friends with some of the politicians and their families. At one point he formally donated, by deed of gift, his birthday to the daughter of the American Land Commissioner Henry Clay Ide , since she was born on Christmas Day and had no birthday celebration separate from the family's Christmas celebrations. This led to a strong bond between the Stevenson and Ide families.

[49] [50] In addition to building his house and clearing his land and helping the Samoans in many ways, he found time to work at his writing. He felt that "there was never any man had so many irons in the fire." [51] He wrote The Beach of Falesa , Catriona (titled David Balfour in the USA), [52] The Ebb-Tide , and the Vailima Letters, during this period. For a time during 1894 Stevenson felt depressed; he wondered if he had exhausted his creative vein and completely worked himself out. He wrote that he had "overworked bitterly". [53] He felt more clearly that, with each fresh attempt, the best he could write was "ditch-water". [54] He even feared that he might again become a helpless invalid. He rebelled against this idea: "I wish to die in my boots; no more Land of Counterpane for me.

To be drowned, to be shot, to be thrown from a horse — ay, to be hanged, rather than pass again through that slow dissolution." [55] He then suddenly had a return of his old energy and he began work on Weir of Hermiston . "It's so good that it frightens me," he is reported to have exclaimed[citation needed]. He felt that this was the best work he had done. He was convinced, "sick and well, I have had splendid life of it, grudge nothing, regret very little ... take it all over, damnation and all, would hardly change with any man of my time." [56] Without knowing it, he was to have his wish fulfilled. During the morning of 3 December 1894, he had worked hard as usual on Weir of Hermiston. During the evening, while conversing with his wife and straining to open a bottle of wine, he suddenly exclaimed, "What's that!" He then asked his wife, "Does my face look strange?" and collapsed beside her. [57] He died within a few hours, probably of a cerebral haemorrhage , at the age of 44.

The Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing their Tusitala upon their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea. [58] Stevenson had always wanted his 'Requiem' inscribed on his tomb. Burial on Mount Vaea in Samoa, 1894. 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 longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill. However, the piece is widely misquoted, including the inscription on his tomb, which closes: Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill. Stevenson was loved by the Samoans and the engraving on his tombstone was translated to a Samoan song of grief [59] which is well known and still sung in Samoa.

Monuments and commemoration A bronze relief memorial to Stevenson, designed by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1904, is mounted in the Moray Aisle of St Giles Cathedral , Edinburgh. [60] Another memorial in Edinburgh stands in West Princes Street Gardens below Edinburgh Castle ; it is a simple upright stone inscribed with "RLS - A Man of Letters 1850 -1894" by sculptor Iain Hamilton Finlay in 1987. [61] A garden was designed by the Bournemouth Corporation in 1957 as a memorial to Stevenson, on the site of his Westbourne house "Skerryvore" which he lived in from 1885 to 1887. A statue of the Skerryvore lighthouse is present on the site. In 1994, to mark the 100th Anniversary of Stevenson's death, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a series of commemorative £1 notes which featured a quill pen and Stevenson's signature on the obverse, and Stevenson's face on the reverse side.

Alongside Stevenson's portrait are scenes from some of his books and his house in Western Samoa where he died in 1894. [62] Two million notes were issued, each with a serial number beginning "RLS". The first note to be printed was sent to Samoa in time for their centenary celebrations on 3 December 1994. [63] Modern reception Stevenson was a celebrity in his own time, but with the rise of modern literature after World War I , he was seen for much of the 20th century as a writer of the second class, relegated to children's literature and horror genres . [64] Condemned by literary figures such as Virginia Woolf (daughter of his early mentor Leslie Stephen ) and her husband Leonard , he was gradually excluded from the canon of literature taught in schools. [64] His exclusion reached a height when in the 1973 2,000-page Oxford Anthology of English Literature Stevenson was entirely unmentioned; and the Norton Anthology of English Literature excluded him from 1968 to 2000 (1st–7th editions), including him only in the 8th edition (2006).

[64] The late 20th century saw the start of a re-evaluation of Stevenson as an artist of great range and insight, a literary theorist , an essayist and social critic , a witness to the colonial history of the Pacific Islands , and a humanist . [64] Even as early as 1965 the pendulum had begun to swing: he was praised by Roger Lancelyn Green , one of the Oxford Inklings , as a writer of a consistently high level of "literary skill or sheer imaginative power" and a co-originator with H. Rider Haggard of the Age of the Story Tellers. [65] He is now being re-evaluated as a peer of authors such as Joseph Conrad (whom Stevenson influenced with his South Seas fiction) and Henry James , with new scholarly studies and organizations devoted to Stevenson. [64] No matter what the scholarly reception, Stevenson remains very popular around the world. According to the Index Translationum , Stevenson is ranked the 25th most translated author in the world, ahead of fellow nineteenth-century writers Charles Dickens , Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe .

[66] Gallery Photographic portrait c.1870's Father Damien: an Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Honolulu (1890) Vailima Letters (1895) The New Lighthouse on the Dhu Heartach Rock, Argyllshire (1995). Based on an 1872 manuscript edited by R. G. Swearingen. California. Silverado Museum. Sophia Scarlet (2008). Based on 1892 manuscript edited by Robert Hoskins. AUT Media (AUT University). Poetry A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), written for children but also popular with their parents. Includes such favourites as "My Shadow" and "The Lamplighter". Often thought to represent a positive reflection of the author's sickly childhood. Underwoods (1887), a collection of poetry written in both English and Scots . Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands (1887). Based on a famous Scottish ghost story.

Ballads (1891) Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896) Travel writing An Inland Voyage (1878), travels with a friend in a "Rob Roy" canoe from Antwerp (Belgium) to Pontoise , just north of Paris. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), two weeks' solo ramble (with Modestine as his beast of burden ) in the mountains of Cévennes (south-central France), one of the first books to present hiking and camping as recreational activities . It tells of commissioning one of the first sleeping bags . The Silverado Squatters (1883). An unconventional honeymoon trip to an abandoned mining camp in Napa Valley with his new wife Fanny and her son Lloyd. He presciently identifies the California wine industry as one to be reckoned with. Across the Plains (written in 1879–80, published in 1892). Second leg of his journey, by train from New York to California (then picks up with The Silverado Squatters). Also includes other travel essays.

The Amateur Emigrant (written 1879–80, published 1895). An account of the first leg of his journey to California, by ship from Europe to New York. Andrew Noble (From the Clyde to California: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Emigrant Journey, 1985) considers it to be his finest work. The Old and New Pacific Capitals (1882). An account of his stay in Monterey, California in August to December 1879. Never published separately. See, for example, James D. Hart, ed., From Scotland to Silverado, 1966. Essays of Travel (London: Chatto & Windus, 1905) Island literature Although not well known, his island fiction and non-fiction is among the most valuable and collected of the 19th century body of work that addresses the Pacific area. Non-fiction works on the Pacific In the South Seas. A collection of Stevenson's articles and essays on his travels in the Pacific. A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (1892).

Musical compositions Stevenson was an amateur composer who wrote songs typical of California in the 1880s, salon-type music, entertaining rather than serious. A flageolet player, Stevenson had studied harmony and simple counterpoint and knew such basic instrumental techniques as transposition. Some song titles include "Fanfare", "Tune for Flageolet", "Habanera", and "Quadrille". Robert Hughes in 1968 arranged a number of Stevenson's songs for chamber orchestra , which went on a tour of the Pacific Northwest in that year. See also Secondary literature Graham Balfour, The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, London: Methuen, 1901. John Jay Chapman "Robert Louis Stevenson", Emerson, and Other Essays . New York: AMS Press, 1969, ISBN 0404006191 (reprinted from the edition of 1899) David Daiches, "Robert Louis Stevenson and his World", London: Thames and Hudson, 1973, ISBN 0500130450 J. C.

Furnas, Voyage to Windward: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, London: Faber and Faber, 1952 Claire Harman, Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-711321-8 [reviewed by Matthew Sturgis in the Times Literary Supplement , 11 March 2005, page 8] James Pope-Hennessy , Robert Louis Stevenson - A Biography, London: Cape, 1974, ISBN 0224010077 Ernest Mehew, "Robert Louis Stevenson", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford: OUP, 2004. Retrieved on 29 September 2008 Roland Paxton, "Stevenson, Thomas (1818-1887)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford: OUP, 2004. Retrieved on 11 October 2008 External links "Lay Morals" Ch. 4, in Lay Morals and Other Essays (1911) Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.

Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Prayer, inscribed on the bronze memorial to Stevenson in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. Complete Works, vol. 26, Reflections and Remarks on Human Life, section 4 Aes Triplex (1878) Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind. The Oxford Book of Essays ed. by John Gross (New York: Oxford, 1998) [Title is Latin for "triple brass," used by Horace] Already and old man, he [Samuel Johnson] ventured on his Highland tour; and his heart, bound with triple brass, did not recoil before twenty-seven individual cups of tea. 314 We do not go to cowards for tender dealing; there is nothing so cruel as panic; the man who has least fear for his own carcase, has most time to consider others.

314 Across the Plains (1892) The true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all. If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people. The observer (poor soul, with his documents!) is all abroad. For to look at the man is but to court deception. We shall see the trunk from which he draws his nourishment; but he himself is above and abroad in the green dome of foliage, hummed through by winds and nested in by nightingales. And the true realism were that of the poets, to climb up after him like a squirrel, and catch some glimpse of the heaven for which he lives. And, the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all. In the joy of the actors lies the sense of any action.

Ch. VII, The Lantern-Bearers We should wipe two words from our vocabulary: gratitude and charity. In real life, help is given out of friendship, or it is not valued; it is received from the hand of friendship, or it is resented. Ch. IX, Beggars To be honest, to be kind — to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation — above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself — here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful. There is indeed one element in human destiny that not blindness itself can controvert: whatever else we are intended to do, we are not intended to succeed; failure is the fate allotted. Ch. XII, A Christmas Sermon Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect duties. Ch.

XII, A Christmas Sermon If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people. Ch. XII, A Christmas Sermon Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much: — surely that may be his epitaph of which he need not be ashamed. Ch. XII, A Christmas Sermon External links

Question: Which author and creator of Jekyll and Hyde, gave his birthday by formal deed to Anne Ide because she disliked her own birthday of December 25th?
Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson