Talk:Robert Louis Stevenson

Omit "The"
In the article, the book is referred to (including a link) "The Strange Case..." The title is actually, "Strange Case..." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ncndamweber (talk • contribs) 21:22, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

✅--JayJasper (talk) 14:12, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Modern reception
When i click on "Modern literature" i arrive at a disambiguation page. So, what's the proper article to link to: modernist literature or modern literature?--Narayan (talk) 13:14, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

History of modern literature seems to be the appropriate link in this context. I've disambiguated the link accordingly.--JayJasper (talk) 13:29, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

'The hunt for lost Stevenson treasures'
--Mais oui! (talk) 13:07, 4 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Scotland on Sunday

Robert Louis Stevenson website
This was removed from the article as being a "plug":
 * In 2009 Edinburgh Napier University launched The Robert Louis Stevenson website, a major online resource for scholars and the public.

First off, I have no connection to the website, university etc.. so it's not "plugging". Second, this is not your typical website, it is a major scholarly effort and is the only authoritative website for Stevenson online. It's set up and run by the worlds leading Stevenson scholars in Stevenson's home city with major grants from various world institutions. It's notable and deserves mention in the section called Modern reception as part of Stevenson's continued revival. This website is fairly new (2009) but Wikipedia is behind the times in incorporating it into the various Stevenson articles - other than Google Books, this is perhaps the most reliable source online for Stevenson information, all the information is written and vetted by professional Stevenson scholars. Green Cardamom (talk) 18:53, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
 * And that's why I have no problem with its being in the external-links section of the article. Many authors have more or less elaborate Web sites devoted to them, and linking to such sites is what that section is for; we don't usually discuss the sites in the authors' articles. I don't think that this site is a major element of the reception of Stevenson, nor do I see it as independently notable. Let's see what others think. Deor (talk) 19:23, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, it is a major element in the modern reception of Stevenson, if you look at the About page who sponsored it. It's not a fan site, it's not a graduate program project, it's not a university professors project. It's the major online resource for Stevenson backed by multiple types of international institutions. It's funny how we often consider websites as being non-notable, but books and movies usually have no problem being mentioned, even minor ones. Some web sites really are notable enough to be discussed in the article. My guess is your not familiar with Stevenson studies. Green Cardamom (talk) 18:35, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree with Deor. The fact that a website has been devoted to Stevenson tells us little about Stevenson's reception - their are excellent websites devoted to the most obscure subjects in the academic world. N p holmes (talk) 05:50, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
 * All I know is that after reading these paragraphs, I'm definitely going to check out that website. The Final Edict (talk) 11:26, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Photo Date
In the Gallery, left photo, second row: Which is it, c. 1888 as it says under the thumbnail, or 1870 as under the full photo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.222.145.224 (talk) 20:10, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's indicated in Wikimedia that the photo is from 1870 but he certainly does seem older than twenty in the photo as it stands now. The original version in Wikimedia, however, before it was improved, seems so devoid of detail that he does look like he could have been twenty in that one. I don't have anything remotely resembling a definitive answer but I was just wondering exactly the same thing myself a few minutes ago. I do think he photographed better as he got older but then he didn't even begin to live past his prime, he died so horrifyingly young. The brevity of his life is a bitter blow for Western literature; he was as prolific as Gore Vidal and had a lot more to create than he had time to do so. I had a front-row seat for that mindless reputational eclipse during the 1970s and never tired of telling teachers how preposterous his downgrading was and assuring them that the matter would right itself sooner rather than later.The Final Edict (talk) 11:45, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Google Doodle
Google made a doodle for his birthday, and this article is the first link. This would be a good time for some polishing. I fixed the image link in the Childhood section, who's next? Jobarts-Talk 06:07, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep an eye out for vandalism...  N419 BH  06:09, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Some vandalism is already starting, going ahead and removing it. (Correction: someone fixed it before me. :P) Dmaxel94 (talk) 06:54, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

The doodle should be added in the Commemorations section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.34.94.110 (talk) 18:30, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Introduction
I vote to remove most of the paragraph on how many authors liked Stevenson. If we're going to include anything about his reception, just say what it was and is, not who 'just loves' Stevenson. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.187.199.192 (talk) 08:41, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually I imagine that it's safe to assume that so many memorable writers rhapsodizing about how brilliant and influential he was carries some weight; it certainly is rather remarkable. As for the paragraph itself, I did recently go in and differentiate those who were writing during exactly his same time period from those who came a bit later. The Final Edict (talk) 11:59, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Please click on the link at the bottom of the "Influenced Section" below. It's astonishing. The Final Edict (talk) 12:10, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

A contradiction
In the article on Stevenson, it is stated that "Stevenson now ranks among the 50 most translated authors in the world, just below Charles Dickens.[1]" and further into the article that statement is contradicted by "Stevenson is ranked the 28th most translated author in the world, ahead of fellow nineteenth-century writers Charles Dickens". The contradiction of "just below" and "ahead of" needs to be resolved.

174.115.38.22 (talk) 16:15, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Dickens is 27th, Stevenson is 28th . The article currently reflects this. Thanks. Jobarts-Talk 18:53, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Last Years
I omitted the first sentence, "His wish would soon be fulfilled." What wish? Stevenson has just been quoted as saying that he would not trade places with any man of his time -- a rhetorical statement, not a renunciation of actual options. To take this statement literally, as a "wish" "fulfilled" by his death, is bafflingly myopic -- or just a glib turn of phrase misplaced in this instance. Dr. All Night (talk) 08:29, 9 August 2012 (UTC)Dr. All Night

'Influenced' Section
In the 'Influenced' section in the side bar at the top of the page, several authors are mentioned as having been influenced by Stevenson. There are no sources to back up these claims: of particular interest is the inclusion of Ernest Hemingway, in whose interviews/letters I am struggling to find any mention of Stevenson.

Could these claims of influence either be verified or removed.

88.104.231.28 (talk) 13:36, 11 September 2012 (UTC)Keith
 * I certainly support blanking the "Influences" and "Influenced" fields in this article. I actually support their removal from the template entirely; entries are often added with no sourced support in the articles themselves, so that these fields often serve little purpose other than as magnets for original research. Deor (talk) 14:23, 11 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Agree, let's remove them if they can't be sourced. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 18:43, 11 September 2012 (UTC)


 * So many writers have been influenced by Stevenson that this section must be restored. You can take a look at "Through the Magic Door" by Conan Doyle, "Stevensoniana" (1910) and the whole library of books who have been writing upon him in the years following his death.  You have some glimpses here of this thing :

http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/richard-dury-archive/critrec.htm

http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/richard-dury-archive/critrec.htm#other_writers — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.245.64.49 (talk) 17:44, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Popular shell collecting quote
Shell collectors, naturalists and malacologists honor RLS and quote him fairly often because he wrote: "It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire..." I don't know where he wrote that and perhaps this article is not the place for a mention of this anyway (?), maybe WikiQuote would be better, but I wanted to just mention it here in case anyone is inspired to source the quote and use it. Invertzoo (talk) 23:16, 22 November 2013 (UTC)


 * It's best off in Wikiquote Span (talk) 18:39, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree that Wikiquote's the place for it. As for the source, it's from "Lay Morals", first published, I believe, in the posthumous volume Lay Morals and Other Papers (1911). Deor (talk) 20:24, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
 * first published in the Edinburgh Edition of Stevenson's Works, 1898. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.245.64.49 (talk) 17:44, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Deor, you know your Stevenson! Isn't his writing wonderful? I remember back in the '70s when his work was being dismissively scoffed at for reasons too inscrutably twisted for a sane person to imagine, I kept saying that this will soon be course corrected (figuratively and, regarding school courses, literally). The Final Edict (talk) 14:53, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Picture removed
I have removed this picture : It's not Stevenson but Andrew Lang who his siting on the right...

File:Willard_Leroy_Metcalf_-_The_Ten_Cent_Breakfast_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|Painting of a scene in Giverny, 1887, by Willard Metcalf. Stevenson is sitting on the right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.245.64.49 (talk) 18:09, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source for that? A number of Web sites, including www.robert-louis-stevenson.org, seem to think that it's Stevenson. Deor (talk) 18:36, 28 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Well, As a matter of fact, it's not A. Lang. I have mistaken this picture for another.

The only indication I can find on this picture is here : http://robert-louis-stevenson.org/documents/newsletter/rls-newsletters-2001-2008.pdf

I don't think it's RLS, and his hair were longer in 1887. He don't seems to have been to Giverny. The painting should be years before for any possibility it was Stevenson. There is no evidence it's him, and moreover this man doesn't resemble him... If you want "true" pictures of RLS for the gallery try the online digital collection of the Beinecke Library. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.245.64.49 (talk) 16:04, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

thou art translated
"A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world"

This statement is misleading if in fact he is the 26th most translated author. It gives the impression that there is a list of the 26 most translated authors, perhaps maintained by a dedicated body, and that this author appears somewhere on that list. When in fact there is no such list, he is simply less translated as 25 other authors, more translated than all others. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.232.34.3 (talk) 07:23, 13 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Such a list does exist created by a dedicated body, it's the Index Translationum. The lead section doesn't go into those details by design (though it is cited) but the main text of the article does. --  Green  C  05:58, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Monuments and Commemoration
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, near Calistoga California, is the site and commemorates where Stevenson spent his honeymoon. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=472 158.68.66.254 (talk) 16:38, 17 July 2014 (UTC)Lawrence Ames 07-17/2014
 * I've added a mention of this in the relevant section. Deor (talk) 11:24, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

A.E. Housman's tribute to RLS
According to this webpage (see references at the bottom of the page) around 1929 poet A.E. Housman wrote a tribute poem to RLS inspired by his gravestone Requiem. While I do not have access to the texts referenced it seems very likely that the variance in the lines from the two poems could be the source of the many misquotes. In either case I think it would be prudent to include this information in both WP articles since readers often want to know the source of a famous quotation and in this case the answer is two-fold. If anyone has access to the referenced book and letters please verify this information. Koala Tea Of Mercy ( KTOM's Articulations &amp; Invigilations ) 18:52, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

"most famous works"?
Are Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses really on a par of "fame" with Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? The latter two are better-known through adaptations, so it's possible that all four original Stevenson works are about as well-known as each other, but "famous" is probably the wrong word in that (strange) case. Hijiri 88 ( 聖やや ) 06:14, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Technically, that would have to be true but Kidnapped is so famous that I do think it would be wrong to leave it out, not to mention all the movies and television made out of it. I do often wonder which has had more impact on Western culture, Treasure Island or Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Fascinating that both are so unremittingly gigantic that it's impossible to say. It's rather like speculating about which is more important, air or water. The Final Edict (talk) 12:20, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Smoking
His death was caused by smoking cigarettes. (86.131.7.4 (talk) 18:17, 20 June 2018 (UTC))
 * Tobacco does seem to be almost omnipresent in photographs and paintings of him but those alternate diseases (instead of tuberculosis) mentioned in the article are truly dreadful, especially that second one, which puts one in mind of John Carpenter's The Thing. It's a wonder Stevenson could stand the thought of a cigarette, much less the reality of sucking that smoke into his lacerated lungs. Proof of the horrors of addiction, not to mention that so comparatively little was known at the time medically. I imagine that a hundred and fifty years from now, people will be laughing at practically everything we currently do, including (especially?) sitting in front of a computer screen for hours at a stretch. The Final Edict (talk) 12:31, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Don't get me wrong, though: no one is more anti-cigarettes than I am. They slaughtered my father along with so many other WW2 veterans. Imagine putting those things right in the K-rations to pacify the beleaguered soldiers and sailors. That decision killed more subsequently haplessly addicted American servicemen than Hitler and Tojo put together. The Final Edict (talk) 14:39, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Twenty-sixth most translated
Where this article says he is currently ranked as the twenty-sixth most translated author in the world, should it say "Citation needed?" Vorbee (talk) 22:02, 6 February 2020 (UTC)
 * That statement is cited where it appears in the "Modern reception" section of the article. Deor (talk) 05:42, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Source now cited in introductionManfredHugh (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 14:48, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Navboxes
There seems to be a glut of navboxes at the bottom of this article. To me, at least, it seems that the boxes for individual works, while certainly appropriate in the articles about those works themselves, are less appropriate in this biographical article. Anyone else have any thoughts on this? Deor (talk) 16:39, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

I don't see seven navboxes as too many for an author of Stevenson's importance. Dimadick (talk) 20:14, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

what are all of your poems
I need to now all of your poems names.2001:5B0:2B28:2908:A89C:54F7:ED4F:2EB5 (talk) 17:58, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

No mention of Swanston
I notice that this article makes no mention of Swanston, the village at the foot of the Pentland Hills where the young RLS spent his holidays between 1867 and 1880 and which arguably had an important influence on his writing. Perhaps someone can put this right? If not, I'll have a shot at it myself. Mike Marchmont (talk) 18:17, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I decided to be bold. I have now added a paragraph re his time in Swanston. Mike Marchmont (talk) 16:13, 26 February 2024 (UTC)