I have loved this author ever since I can remember. As a child, I loved (and still do!) Robert Louis Stevenson’s A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES. Who wasn’t raised on TREASURE ISLAND, KIDNAPPED, AND THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE? I certainly hope most of us were!
According to Wikipedia, Stevenson ranks in the 30 most extensively translated authors in the entire world—just below Charles Dickens. Stevenson’s adventure stories and robust poetry are full of life. One would never guess from reading this author that he was extremely “sickly” as a child and adult. He was frequently bedridden with severe respiratory ailments (common in the industrial areas of England and Stevenson’s native Scotland).
Stevenson’s last years were spent on a Samoan island, where he was loved by the natives for his sociable personality and gift of storytelling. He died there, in 1894. The inscription on his tomb bears Stevenson’s lines:
“Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
Of all of Stevenson’s works, I love his poem The Vagabond best. The exuberance of this poem expresses the author’s outgoing, life-affirming spirit. Paired with a Schubert melody by Vaughan Williams in the early 1900s, The Vagabond is a popular art solo selection at vocal recitals. Many a time over the years, I attended regional and state music competitions where I enjoyed hearing The Vagabond sung by young high school men. It’s a classic!