Posted on 05/28/2015 1:29:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Nice, thanks!!
There is a restaurant on the beach near Diamond Head, Hao Tree Lanai, that still has the huge Hao tree that Stevenson is said to have described while staying in Hawaii.
“Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie,
Glad did I live, and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me;
Here he lies, where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
His Self-written Epitaph.
I think the weirdest honeymoon would go to the first couple. What with Michelle not really liking guys and Barry liking them too much.Not to mention, the huge pictures of Chairman Mao and Mohammed over the bed.
Has that Gibson Girl look that I love.
There is more to the story. Stevenson had tuberculosis (then called “consumption.”) Before there were treatments, the main thing you did was look for a dry, arid climate which apparently made the symptoms of the disease less severe (like Arizona—gunslinger Doc Holliday is an example of someone who went to a desert climate to find relief). Much of Stevenson’s life journey was trying to find a climate that would not exacerbate or would ideally “heal” his tuberculosis.
San Francisco was definitely not the place to be because of all the fog, and it had a dramatic effect on him. I think before that, he had arrived in Sacramento (same problem, with the fog from the delta). So he tried to get away from the City and the fog.
He went to Napa Valley (Calistoga was known as a health sanatorium, with hot springs and mud baths that supposedly had restorative powers), but if you’ve spent time in Napa Valley you know that during much of the year and especially in the summer, the fog from the coast basically comes in every night (and usually lifts the next morning around 10 or so).
So the only solution was to try to get above the fog layer. He did that by going up Mr. St. Helena to the old abandoned mining camp.
The other thing I thought was interesting in his account, “The Silverado Squatters,” was his description of constantly hearing buzzing noises—he couldn’t figure out what the sound was although it was all all around him. Somebody finally told him that there were rattlesnakes in the mining camp—in fact, the camp was infested with them. Stevenson and his family (and their dog) were fortunate not to get bitten.
Spent a night in Calistoga in the ‘60s—my parents had friends there and took us all to visit them. We stayed in a house that was supposedly on property that Stevenson had visited (the house had been built later). The house was supposedly haunted.
He eventually went to Hawaii and the South Pacific.
Yep, basically for the same reasons, trying to find that ideal climate.
Here is his poem about Princess Kaiulani in Hawaii, whom he met when she was a young girl. During that period, she was then sent away to boarding school in England:
To Princess Kaiulani
From Songs of Travel
“[Written in April to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at Waikiki, within easy walk of Kaiulani’s banyan! When she comes to my land and her father’s, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear it will), let her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered and pressed at home; and she will remember her own islands, and the shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of her father sitting there alone. - R. L. S.]
Forth from her land to mine she goes,
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face:
The daughter of a double race.
Her islands here, in Southern sun,
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone,
And I, in her dear banyan shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.
But our Scots islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempests by
To smile in Kaiulani’s eye.
Honolulu.”
< img src=”http://www.fsakamoto.com/naomi/pic/kaiulani2.jpeg" >
< img src=”http://www.fsakamoto.com/naomi/pic/kaiulani.jpeg" >
Hmm, those didn’t come out.
Thank you for the link. Sarah Stodder, the author, told an enjoyable story about RLS and it’s true. He was very thin and sickly, fell in love with a married lady, followed her back to San Francisco and moved to St. Helena. I encourage everyone to visit Berkeley, make a road trip to Napa Valley for wine tasting (3 hour round trip). Then please stop by the town of St. Helena and visit the Silverado Museum located in the public library. I have been there probably five times with visiting friends.
RLS is a wonderful writer and Fanny was very beautiful.
http://bit.ly/1LMvgsX
His stepson, Lloyd, ended up a collaborating with him on a few books. I’ll have to dig up my RLS books, wherever they are.
He did not live long after the book came out. He sure did travel a lot for a man of his time.
More then me for sure and I have airplanes and cars to use.
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 3 December 1894 Vailima, Samoan Islands. Do Samoans collect heads?... : )
The wife Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne 18401914
Another suggestion on top of the RLS Museum in St. Helena. The writer Jack London also had a ranch in the area (actually, on the other side of the hills at Glen Ellen in Sonoma). This is where he spent the final years of his life and passed away (he died relatively young, from kidney and liver ailments and too much drinking). It is now the Jack London State Park (was closed for a while because of the State’s financial difficulties but I think it is open again). Anyway, you can go from the City over the Golden Gate and then up to Sonoma and Jack London Park, spend a couple of hours there, and then drive over the hills to Napa Valley (depending on the route you take, you will come out near Oakville or St.Helena/Calistoga).
Jack London Park is beautiful and interesting. There is a good museum in one of the old stone buildings with a lot of information and personal memorabilia about Jack London, and sometimes his ranch house is open as well, which has been kept in the condition it was in when he died (in fact, you can see the cot he passed away in). And you can take a short hike through meadows and woods to see both the ruins of the large house he was building before he died, “Wolf House,” and to visit Jack London’s gravesite which is situated on the top of a knoll in a stand of redwoods.
This is sort of a pilgrimage site for me. In past years, whenever I was in the area I would go to the park and pay my respects to Jack at his grave. And when my kids were little, on a couple of trips we took them hiking there and had a picnic.
I’ve always liked Jack London (even though he was a doggone Socialist). He led a very interesting and adventurous life.
Thank you for the Jack London information. Very interesting. The bar where he did his homework during grammar school is located in Jack London Square near the Oakland train station.
Thanks for the link to the nice park.
Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bret Harte are three wonderful authors connected to the Bay Area. I am thankful for Libri Vox recordings and yes, the scenery in Napa Valley is spectacular.
I read a short story by Stevenson last year. I realized why his books fascinated me when I was a kid—the man knew how to tell a tale.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.