Stevenson, Robert, LB

Timeline

by Thomas Stevenson:

1850 November 13 We are blessed with a baby boy. We have named him Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson.
1857 We move to Inverleith Terrace.
1858 Lewis’s first essay into publishing, age 8 – He has written and himself illustrated “A History of Moses.”
1863 We have had to take our boy back home from Spring Grove boarding school after just three months. He was unwell and unhappy there so far away from home.
1864 Lewis is in such poor health that he is only rarely able to attend Edinburgh Academy. We have tutors for him.
1867 It has been a delight to see Lewis flourish in the bracing winds of North Berwick. He is a young man any father would be proud of. He came with me on my visit to inspect the lighthouses of the Western lsles this summer.
1868 Lewis is his own man now, a matriculated student and a law student at that in the University of Edinburgh.

by R L Stevenson, in person:

1869 This is my story now. l own my father might have told two more truths about my childhood. In both l disappointed him and dear mother. Father gracefully agreed that the lighthouse life is not for me. l am not to follow him and grandfather into the business of engineer they are masters of. Why was l so insistent that l would cast aside my given names Lewis and Balfour in favour of Louis? Literary pretensions, some say. l fear they are exact.
1870 l am enjoying the life of a law student but not the law. l do attend a lecture now and then but l fear my tutors must say they would not recognise me.
1872 My friends do not all approve of my favouring cricketing apparel for everyday wear.
1873 I have a long weary spell in Menton to recover my health.
1875 l am an advocate. Father hopes l will earn a living at the law.
1876 With my good friend Walter Simpson l have had a canoeing adventure in France and Belgium, storing memories and meeting Fanny.
1880 Now back in Edinburgh l am married to Fanny. She is charming my parents and helping me explain our long absence in America.
1887 Father has died .and l feel at last able to try again to find a place to live away from Scotland where l can enjoy better health.