Word: stevensons
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Robert Louis Stevenson...
...Stevenson Myth." It is an open question whether Stevenson is loved more for his work or his work for him. Certainly the worship of authors has never gone to greater lengths?lengths possibly of questionable value to their object. Idolatry has made of R. L. S. a figure dizzily perched on the precarious eminence of perfection. He is permitted no faults, no weaknesses?other than the exalted one of physical ill-health. On the other hand, there have been daring iconoclasts no less superlative in their attacks upon this knight of the spotless scutcheon? notably W. E. Henley, his erstwhile...
...Stevenson. ". . . He was badly put together, a slithering, loose flail of a fellow, all joints, elbows and exposed spindle shanks, his trousers being generally a foot too short in the leg. He was so like a scarecrow that one almost expected him to creak in the wind ... his long lank hair fell straggling to his shoulders, giving him the look of a quack or a gypsy." "In class, when it pleased him to attend, he was the worst-behaved man of my acquaintance...
...Stevenson himself said that he was forced to keep low company because he could not afford better. "I was the companion of seamen, chimney-sweeps and thieves," says he, "not without a touch of swagger." To his disreputable drunken intimates of bars and "howffs", he was known as "velvet-coat," and amongst them he sowed his wild oats with a generous hand. He was socially ostracised. Victorian smugness turned on him a discreet back...
Chiefest and best known among his peccant intimates of those stormy days was the lady known as "Claire", a Highland lass, actually named Kate Drummond, "slim and dark, very trim and neat, with jet-black hair." She was one of the class aptly known as "unfortunates", but Stevenson's affection for her appears rot to have been wholly sensual. Rather she filled a gap for him. He was a lonely youth, with few intimates other than his drunken cronies. She stands out significantly among all his later amours?reputable and otherwise. And Stevenson was ever the lover, his hot eager...