Robert Louis Stevenson Became a Thoreauvian
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HOW ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BECAME A THOREAUVIAN Letter to the Editor, The New Yorker, October 28, 2015 SUBJ: Are you pond scum? You need to be able to hear Robert Louis Stevenson apologize for having been wrong. You need to see him attempt to make amends, and become a Thoreauvian. —Or is that sneer etched on your face? Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1811 February 1, Friday: Scotland’s Bell Rock lighthouse, at the mouth of Scotland’s Firth of Forth, began operations (Robert Stevenson had been working on this project since 1807). Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 1st of 2nd M 1811// Nothing material to insert, except that it has been a very Stormy day & I did not go home to dinner, & dined at my fathers. Set the evening at home with my dear H who has been very lonely thro’ the day — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS FIGURING OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A “HISTORICAL CONTEXT” IS WHAT THE CRAFT OF HISTORICIZING AMOUNTS TO, AND THIS NECESSITATES HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE SET OF EVENTS THAT MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE BEFORE EVENT E COULD BECOME POSSIBLE, AND MOST CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHING THEM FROM ANOTHER SET OF EVENTS THAT COULD NOT POSSIBLY OCCUR UNTIL SUBSEQUENT TO EVENT E. Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1814 Walter Scott toured the Orkney, Shetland, and Hebridean islands with Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather and a group of other lighthouse commissioners. Sir Walter visited Malcolm Laing at his estate on Orkney: “Our old acquaintance, though an invalid, received us kindly; he looks very poorly, and cannot walk without assistance, but seems to retain all the quick, earnest, and vivacious intelligence of his character and manner.” Robert Jamieson, Henry William Weber, and Walter Scott’s ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES: FROM THE EARLIER TEUTONIC AND SCANDINAVIAN ROMANCES; BEING AN ABSTRACT OF THE BOOK OF HEROES, AND NIBELUNGEN LAY; WITH TRANSLATIONS OF METRICAL TALES, FROM THE OLD GERMAN, DANISH, SWEDISH, AND ICELANDIC LANGUAGES; WITH NOTES AND DISSERTATIONS (Edinburgh: Printed by J. Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London; and John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh). NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1840 March 10, Tuesday: The 1st Daguerreotypes to be made in Boston. Frances (Fanny) Matilda Vandegrift (or Van de Grift) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Waldo Emerson lectured at the New-York Mercantile Library. This was the initial lecture of his series “The Philosophy of History.” For 3 lectures he would receive $150. It would be reported that more single tickets were sold for his lectures, than for all the rest at the Mercantile Library put together. YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION. Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1850 November 13, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson delivered “Wealth” before the Bigelow Mechanics’ Institute in Clinton, Massachusetts. Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place in Edinburgh (“Lewis” after his maternal grandfather, Dr Lewis Balfour — our surmise is that his father would change the spelling of his son’s middle name to “Louis” on account of an unlikeable fellow in their vicinity named “Lewis” — at any rate he would be addressed within the family as “Lewis” or “Louis,” for obvious reasons, rather than “Robert”). SCOTLAND NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE NOVEMBER 13TH, 1850 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST). AS OF NOVEMBER 13, 1850, NO ONE HAD EVER HEARD OF “KIDNAPPED” OR “TREASURE ISLAND,” AND NOT ONLY THAT — NO ONE HAD EVER HEARD OF “ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.” Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1851 This was the 1st year of a tuberculosis outbreak in Britain, where over the course of five years 1851-1855 some 250,000 would die. William Dickes provided the firm of Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans with illustrations for Henry Noel Humphreys’s SENTIMENTS AND SIMILES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. A CLASSIFIED SELECTION OF SIMILES, DEFINITIONS, DESCRIPTIONS, AND OTHER REMARKABLE PASSAGES IN THE PLAYS AND POEMS OF SHAKESPEARE. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON He displayed specimens of oil color printing from raised surfaces at the Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace. He relocated his offices in London, to 5 Old Fish Street. Gail Borden won a medal for meat biscuit, and on return home to Galveston, Texas from London (because the cows aboard ship had become too sick to provide milk for infants) got the idea that milk could be condensed through evaporation. At the Great Exhibition, Arthur Leared presented a model of a double stethoscope, which he had fashioned out of gutta-percha. Nathan Marsh of Cincinnati began to market a type of double stethoscope, made of india rubber, although his model really didn’t work all that well. “The advent of the stethoscope made it possible to unify tuberculosis.” — Doctor Jacalyn Duffin “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY January: The family of Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson moved from 8 Howard Place to 1 Inverleith Terrace in Edinburgh. December 13, Saturday: In Edinburgh, Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was baptized. December 13, Saturday: While surveying today saw much Mt Laurel for this neighborhood in Mason’s pasture–just over the line in Carlisle. Its bright yellowish green shoots are agreeable to my eye We had one hour of almost Indian summer weather in the middle of the day. I felt the influence of the sun– It melted my stoniness a little. The pines looked like old friends again. Cutting a path through a swamp where was much brittle dogwood &c &c I wanted to know the name of every shrub. This varied employment to which my necessities compel me serves instead of foreign travel & the lapse of time– If it makes me forget some things which I ought to remember, it no doubt enables me to forget many things which it is well to forget. By stepping aside from my chosen path so often I see myself better and am enabled to criticise myself. Of this nature is the only true lapse of time. It seems an age since I took walks & wrote in my journal– And when shall I revisit the glimpses of the moon? To be able to see ourselves–not merely as others see us–but as we are–that service a variety of absorbing employments does us. I would not be rude to the fine intimations of the Gods for fear of incurring the reproach of superstition. When I think of the Carlisle man whom I saw today–& the filthiness of his house–I am reminded that there are all degrees of barbarism even in this so called civilized community. Carlisle too belongs to the 19th century. Saw Perez Blood in his frock. A stuttering sure–unpretending man. Who does not speak without thinking, Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON does not guess– When I reflected how different he was from his neighbors Conant–Mason–Hodgman– – I saw that it was not so much outwardly–but that I saw an inner form.– We do indeed see through & through each other–through the veil of the body–& see the real form & character–in spite of the garment–any coarseness or tenderness is seen and felt under whatever garb. How nakedly men appear to us–for the spiritual assists the natural eye. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Robert Louis Stevenson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1852 This was the 2d year of the tuberculosis outbreak in Britain, where over the course of five years 1851-1855 some 250,000 would die. Dr. George Cammann produced the 1st binaural stethoscope that was actually useful. He was working as a physician at the Northern Dispensary in New-York and had seen the clumsy model produced by Nathan Marsh of Cincinnati in the previous year. His device had ivory earpieces connected to metal tube connected to two tubes covered in wound silk converging into a cone-shaped chest piece having a hollow ball to amplify sound. “The advent of the stethoscope made it possible to unify tuberculosis.” — Doctor Jacalyn Duffin THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT.