File:Robert Louis Stevenson (1915) (14598381717).jpg

Identifier: robertlouissteven00crus (find matches)
Title: Robert Louis Stevenson
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Cruse, Amy, 1870-1951
Subjects: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894
Publisher: London : George G. Harrap
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing Before Image:
taught himself his letters
by looking at the illustrated papers during his
recovery from a severe illness, and by the time he
was eight years old he could read and write fluently.
Even before this he had attempted original com-
position. When he was only six his uncle David
offered a prize to the one among his children and
his nephews who should write the best History of
Moses. Louis dictated his version to his mother
on five successive Sunday evenings, and illustrated
her manuscript with drawings of the Israelites
crossing the Red Sea carrying unwieldy portmanteaux
and smoking huge cigars. A Bible picture book
was awarded him as an extra prize. From that
time forward, says his mother, it was the desire
of his heart to be an author. From this ambition
he never swerved, though, like the rest of his family,
he felt strongly the call to a life of adventure and
active effort. He grew up in an atmosphere like
that which had so strongly influenced his father.
All around him were people whose main interests
26
Text Appearing After Image:

R. L. S. and his Mother 26
Fhoto J. Patrick

Childhood

were concerned with the sea, and whose talk was
chiefly of its perils and adventures. Father, uncles,
cousins—nearly all were, or aspired to be, lighthouse-
builders. All were proud of the triumphs the family
had won, and not one was prouder than little Robert
Louis. The strength of his desire to be an author
is proved in that it entirely conquered the strong
hereditary tendency toward the fascinating calling
of his fathers ; but the effect of this early environ-
ment was to be seen in him and in his work to
the end. His early religious training had a far stronger
influence upon him than his purely intellectual
education. ' Cummie ' belonged to the strictest sect
of the Presbyterians, and under her care Louis spent,
as he tells us, "a Covenanting childhood." He
was made to study diligently the Bible, the Shorter
Catechism, and the writings of the chief Covenant-
ing divines. When I was a child, he wrote
many years afterward to Mr J. M. Barriee,
and indeed until I was nearly a man, I con-
sistently read Covenanting books. ...

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