THE RLS club and Merchiston Publishing is to present a new Robert Louis Stevenson anthology featuring reflections from prominent figures in the Scottish and international writing community.
The RLS club was formed in 1920 by friends of the writer and continues today with the same mission to preserve and promote his legacy.
Through the close ties the club has with international RL Stevenson affiliated bodies, this publication will bring together many different perspectives; the anthology gives the reader a full picture of Stevenson’s varied life.
The contributors have examined the influence of Stevenson’s writing on their own creativity and work.
The artistic voice of some of Scotland’s most well-known writers has been marked by Stevenson’s ideas and style.
Ian Rankin describes how his famous character, Inspector Rebus, was in part inspired by one of Stevenson’s darker narratives.
“In reading Jekyll and Hyde, two things struck me. One was first, that it felt a very Edinburgh story, yet frustratingly Stevenson had chosen to set his tale in far-distant London.
“Secondly, the book acts as a discussion of good and evil, about why we human beings choose to do terrible things sometimes.
“This moral conundrum is at the heart of all crime fiction, and I decided that I would write a crime novel set in contemporary Edinburgh, allowing me to explore the city while also updating some of the ideas in Stevenson’s book.
“In that first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, we readers are meant to suspect that the hero may also be the villain. At the end, however, it is Rebus’s alter ego or one-time blood brother who turns out to have been the Hyde figure. Not that readers or reviewers noticed my intention.”
ALONGSIDE the celebrations, the contributions include deeply personal stories.
Stevenson wrote significant works for both children and adults, he is one of the few writers who has inspired readers from their early childhood through to later life. Many of the contributors discuss this lasting connection – Stevenson has been a constant in their lives.
The writer Christopher Rush describes his affinity with “Louis”; he has sought to emulate the man he so admires.
Rush took a trip, following in Stevenson’s footsteps through France, and like Stevenson, travelled on a donkey. Rush’s Living with Louis is a moving account of this journey.
“And I knew that the first childhood link with Louis had only been the beginning, the start of a lifetime’s journey which, if you travel in the same spirit, is one that never ends.
“Nobody has put it better than Louis himself: ‘to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour’.”
CONTRIBUTOR Jim Bertram also travelled in France, on the route made famous by Stevenson. Bertram composed poetry as he made his way along the trail. The anthology includes his travel diary and original poems.
“Wednesday, 28 – Pradelles to Cheylard L’Eueque, along a route reputedly haunted by a giant wolf, the ‘Beast of Gevaudan’, for fear of which a French peasant refused to leave the safety of his cottage to show Stevenson the way: ‘Mais je ne sortirai pas de la port.’
Fear (Lupus canis)
Behind those yellow tunnels of light,
The gray wolf lopes through the mind of your night
Close your eyes tightly, but it doesn’t undo.
You seeing him, seeing him, watching you.
An afforested pavement of no one you knew,
The way opens up for you to pass through.
In a flash, there’s those eyes in fateful review.
He’s there watching you, seeing him, watching you.
You encamp at day’s end for sake of repose,
But just at that time, quite naked of clothes.
These eyes of your fear continually pursue.
With back to the fire, you watch him, watching you.”
THE contributions all display an infectious passion for Stevenson’s “labour” – he experienced great suffering but led a life of equally great adventure. His writing reveals him to be a truly modern man, who seems somewhat out of place in the Victorian age.
His work is relevant and important to modern audiences.
The anthology contains a foreword from Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Her words highlight the powerful legacy of Stevenson.
“His words have rung brightly for well over a century now – they will continue to do so for as long as people love stories.”
For information about the release of Fortunate Voyager follow @RLSAnthology
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