Stevenson's obsession with travel and activity is particularly poignant when one realizes how much of his life, from childhood through adulthood, he spent in bed, ill.
He wrote in an 1892 letter from Samoa--which he twice tried, and failed (due to poor health), to leave, before dying there in 1894--"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."
It so happens that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is my family's current read-aloud. If it's any comfort, Maryann, the intro to our edition mentions how vigorously Stevenson championed the rights of native Hawaiians and Samoans against racist European and American politicians. In fact, the 1892 publication of his history of Samoa resulted in the recall of two particularly unsavory European officials, and for a time Stevenson feared that it might result in his own deportation, poor health or no.
Last edited by Julie Steiner; 10-26-2012 at 10:29 PM.
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