Welcome to Castle Writers
And a special welcome to our friends in Great Britain and all over the world.
Please click on a link opposite to visit the relevant page.
Monthly Author & Book Feature
'Treasure Island'
By Robert Louis Stevenson(1850 - 1894)
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
R L Stevenson Treasure Island
1911 Edition Cover
Below is a short passage from the book. Jim Hawkins has climbed the ship's rigging as far as he can go, while Israel Hands, one of the bloodthirsty pirates, climbs toward him with a dagger in his teeth and murder on his mind. Jim however, has two flintlock pistols........
'Jim,' says he, 'I reckon we're fouled, you and me, and we'll have to sign articles. I'd have had you but for that there lurch: but I don't have no luck, not I; and I reckon I'll have to strike, which comes hard, you see, for a master mariner to a ship's younker like you, Jim.'
I was drinking in his words, and smiling away, as conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath, back went his right hand over his shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment--I scarce can say it was by my own volition, and I am sure it was without a conscious aim--both my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They did not fall alone; with a choked cry, the coxswain, Israel Hands, loosed his grasp upon the shrouds, and plunged head first into the water.
***
Stevenson's gift for story telling is second to none - then or since - his characters are larger-than-life and unforgettable. The plot of Treasure Island needs no telling here; surely everyone has either read, or seen a film of the book. If not, we strongly advise they do.
As an adventure tale, Treasure Island is near perfect, and its narrative is fast paced and full of the stuff of dreams. Pirates, treasure, castaways, battles - it has the lot.
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. His father Thomas was an engineer who had built many of the lighthouses around the rocky coast of Scotland. His mother, Margaret came from a family of lawyers and church ministers.
When young Louis was not bed-ridden suffering from a fever or cold exacerbated by the damp and chilly Scottish weather, he was often in the company of his father and the fishermen and lighthouse keepers he worked closely with. These times would provide much fodder for his stories as a child and in later life. Louis' devoted nurse Allison Cunningham "Cummy" read to him and encouraged him at an early age to write his own stories. He later dedicated A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) to her.
At the age of seventeen he enrolled at Edinbourgh university to study engineering, with the aim of following his father into the family firm. However, he abandoned this course of studies and made the compromise of studying law. He qualified as advocate in 1875 but did not practice, since by now he knew he wanted to be a writer. He had, in the university’s summer vacations, gone to France to be in the company of other young artists, both writers and painters. His first published work was an essay called 'Roads' and his first published books were works of travel writing.
While on one of his many forays in France, Stevenson met American artist Fanny Osbourne (1840-1914) who was there without her husband but with son Lloyd and daughter Isobel. The children were dazzled by Stevenson's outgoing personality and pirate stories, and Louis and Fanny fell in love.
In August of 1879 he sailed for New York from Glasgow, much to the distress of his father who was concerned for his health. After making the arduous cross-country journey to San Francisco which inspired The Amateur Emigrant (1895), Across The Plains (1892), and The Silverado Squatters (1883) Louis and Fanny were re-united, she having recently been granted a divorce. In May 1880 they were married.
While in the USA, Stevenson took up a number of positions writing for various newspapers and magazines including The Cornhill Magazine. In 1880 the Stevensons travelled back to Europe, living for a time in Bournemouth, England. However, the climate was still too cold and damp for him and he spent winters travelling. In 1888 he set sail for the South Seas, and by the end of 1889 was familiar with the island of Samoa, the place where he and Fanny would soon call home.
Having been welcomed by the locals who bestowed the name Tusitala or Teller of Tales on him, Stevenson purchased four hundred acres that would be the setting for his mansion Vailima (Five Rivers) in the village of same name. Stevenson immersed himself in the local culture and politics of his new home, and continued his prodigious output of novels and letters.
Robert Louis Stevenson's complete works are far too numerous to include here, but among his better known work apart from Treasure Island, are the classic novels: The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
Kidnapped (1886) and The Strange Case of Dr Jeckel and Mr Hyde (1886)
Stevenson died at his home in Samoa of a stroke on 3 December 1894, his beloved Fanny by his side.
Please leave any messages or comments in the guestbook below. Just leave any mark you like in the email box. No need to leave your email if you don't want to. Thank you.
