About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. Chronically ill with bronchitis and possibly tuberculosis, Stevenson withdrew from Engineering at Edinburgh University in favour of Studying Law. Although he passed the bar and became an advocate in 1875, he knew that his true work was as a writer.

Between 1876 and his death in 1894, Stevenson wrote prolifically. His published essays, short stories, fiction, travel books, plays, letters and poetry number in dozens. The most famous of his works include Travels With A Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), New Arabian Nights (1882), Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1887), Thrawn Janet (1887) and Kidnapped (1893).

After marrying Fanny Osbourne in 1880 Stevenson continued to travel and to write about his experiences. His poor health led him and his family to Valima in Samoa, where they settled. During his days there Stevenson was known as 'Tusitala' or 'The Story Teller'. His love of telling romantic and adventure stories allowed him to connect easily with the universal child in all of us. 'Fiction is to grown men what play is to the child,' he said.

Robert Louis Stevenson died in Valima in 1894 of a brain haemorrhage.

Reviews

PreS Up-- This new presentation of Stevenson's classic childhood poems brings together an unusual combination of artistic technique but falls short of any notable new interpretation. The pages are reproductions of needlework borders done by Sara Gutierrez; they lend a colorful, quaint look that complements Lewis' paintings of old-fashioned children. Each poem is laid out on a page, and the artists have nicely varied placement of painting and border. Some of the scenes are imaginative, as in ``Young Night Thought,'' which shows a girl carried by two genies. Others, however, are dull, such as the boy and girl in ``Good and Bad Children''; here, the girl stands with hands behind her back looking prim while the boy sticks his tongue out at her. No attempt at universality has been made in this new edition: boys outnumber girls, and all of the children are white except one. For a classic look, editions by Tasha Tudor and Jessie W. Smith still remain the top choices. --Marianne Pilla, Upper Dublin Public Library, Dresher, PA

A plethora of poetry books arrive just in time for National Poetry Month. Now available in a board book edition, A Child's Garden of Verses, compiled by Cooper Edens, pairs eight of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems with turn-of-the-century illustrations to captivate a child's imagination. For instance, "Happy Thought" ("The world is so full of a number of things,/ I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings") is embedded like a placard within a pen-and-ink by E. Mars (1900), while opposite, a 1940 illustration by Ruth Mary Hallock depicts a happy assembly of children and kittens, gathering for a snack break after a game of croquet. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.