and short-stories, such as "Virginibus Puerisque " (1881) and "New Arabian Nights" (1882), parts of which had already appeared in magazines, and in 1883 his first popular success, "Treasure Island." In 1887 his father died and in the next year he came again to America, sojourning at various places, among them Saranac Lake, and then voyaging in a sailing vessel, The Casco, in the Pacific. It was not his ill-health alone that kept him on the move, but an adventurous spirit as well. Finally the family settled at Apia, Samoa, the climate of which he found remarkably salubrious. There he could work even physically without the long spells of illness to which he had been accustomed all his life. He was able to take an intense interest in the unhappy politics of the islands, endeavoring to alleviate the unfortunate condition of the natives, who passionately returned his interest. They built for him to his house a road to which they gave the significant name of "The Road of the Loving Heart," and they celebrated his story-telling gift by the name “Tusitala," the teller of tales. His efforts for Samoa resulted in a book entitled" A Foot Note to History" (1893), which showed the troubled condition of the islands. In this place, ruling over a large retinue of servants like a Scottish chieftain over his clan, he lived for three years, turning out much work and producing half of that most wonderful novel, "Weir of Hermiston," which bid fair to be his greatest achievement. Death came suddenly in 1894 from the bursting of a blood vessel in the brain, thus cheating his lifelong enemy, tuberculosis. Besides " Weir," he left almost completed another novel, "St. Ives," which was concluded by Quiller-Couch and published in 1898. On a high peak of Vaea he lies beneath a stone bearing the epitaph written by himself: "Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. And I laid me down with a will. And the hunter home from the hill." REFERENCES Biography: BALFOUR: Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. RALEIGH: R. L. Stevenson. Criticism: GENUNG: Stevenson's Attitude toward Life. PHELPS: Modern Novelists. NOTES ON "THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR" This story of dramatic interest, which contains, moreover, much psychologic interest, was first published in Temple Bar, January, 1878, and reprinted in the volume "New Arabian Nights" in 1882. PAGE 148. Sire: obsolete French for sir. Burgundy a section of eastern France bordering on the river Rhone. The Count of Burgundy by a treaty with the English recognized the claim of the English king, Henry VI, to the throne of France. Their troops at the time of the story were endeavoring to establish this claim by force of arms. Joan of Arc figures in this war. safe-conduct: a passport. As Denis had one, he must have come from the French forces and consequently was among enemies. 149. Chateau Landon: an ancient town southeast of Paris. 150. Bourges: a city in the Department of Cher, west of Burgundy. 154. rushes: In those days the floors of rooms were covered with rushes into which people were accustomed to throw refuse. Cleaning was done by removing the old rushes and putting a fresh supply in their place. 155. Leonardo: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), a famous Italian painter who did much portraiture, particularly of women. 156. damoiseau: obsolete French word denoting rank. 163. salle (French) hall. One of 164. Charlemagne: the French form of Charles the Great (742814), a great king of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans. 169. Hercules: a great personage in Greek mythology, famous This psychological study was written in 1884 and published in Unwin's Annual for 1885. PAGE 179. "Time was that when the brains were out": a misquotation from Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Act III, scene iv, lines 78-79. In full this most apposite reference runs: "The times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strange 180. Bohemian goblets: drinking glasses of glass made in Bohemia, the most northern portion of the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Its glassware is famous. 182. Brownrigg: Elizabeth Brownrigg, a notorious English murderess of the eighteenth century. Pictures of such persons were common at country fairs. Mannings other murderers, man and wife. Thurtell another murderer and his victim. : 185. other murderers: compare the agonies of Bill Sykes in "Oliver Twist." 186. Sheraton sideboard: Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) was a well-known English furniture maker. Jacobean tombs: graves of the times of the English kings named James of the seventeenth century. 187. a face was thrust into the aperture: This was not a real person but one born of Markheim's troubled mind. The conversation shows the dual nature of man, containing both good and bad, and how a man excuses his wickedness. The subject was used again by Stevenson in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." RUDYARD KIPLING Rudyard Kipling is the son of John Lockwood Kipling, successively Professor in the Bombay School of Art and Curator of the Government Museum at Lahore, India, and of Alice Macdonald, the daughter of a Wesleyan minister. He was born at Bombay, December 30, 1865. His given name commemorates the meetingplace of his parents, a small lake in Staffordshire. In accordance with the custom dictated by the needs of health and of education in the case of white children born in India, he was taken in 1871 to England, where he stayed with a relative at Southsea, near Portsmouth. The experiences of such little exiles from the home circle are feelingly shown in "Baa, Baa, Blacksheep" and in the beginning of "The Light that Failed." When thirteen he entered The United Services College, Westward Ho, Bideford, North Devon. Here he stayed from 1878 to 1882, taking part in some at least of the happenings so well narrated in " Stalky and Co." (1899). On leaving college in 1882 he went to Lahore, India, where he became sub-editor of The Civil and Military Gazette. In 1887 he joined the editorial staff of The Allahabad Pioneer. To these papers he contributed many of the poems and short-stories soon collected in the volumes named "Departmental Ditties" (1886) and “Plain Tales from the Hills" (1888). All of these writings come near to actual occurrences, and give a fascinating glimpse of conditions in India. In the same year of 1888 he published in India six other volumes of tales. Leaving India in 1889, he returned to Europe via China, Japan, and the United States, sending back to the two papers travel sketches which have since been collected under the title of "From Sea to Sea" (1899). On reaching England he found himself a celebrated man. There he met in 1891 Wolcott Balestier, an American, to whom he dedicated "Barrack Room Ballads " (1892) in an introductory poem filled with glowing tribute. In the same year he made further journeys to South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. He married Caroline Balestier in 1892, the year of publication of "The Naulahka," which had been written in collaboration with her brother. The travelling continued till they settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, where their unique house was named appropriately "The Naulahka." The fruit of his American sojourn was, among other writings, "Captains Courageous" (1897), a story of the Atlantic fishing banks, full of American atmosphere and characters. In the meantime, in various periodicals had appeared short-stories and poems, which were quickly put into books. One of the stories is A Walking Delegate,” which is so wonderfully accurate in the local color of Vermont as to be worthy of special mention. It forms one of " The Day's Work" group (1898). In it is seen Kipling's power of observation, which he possesses to such a remarkable degree. To this period belong those famous collections, "The Jungle Book" (1894) and "The Second Jungle Book" (1895), containing the beast stories which seem so plausible, and a book of poems, "The Seven Seas" (1896). In 1896 the Kiplings returned to England, taking a house at Rottingdean. While England has remained his permanent home, he has continued to take journeys. During a trip in 1899 he was seriously ill in New York with pneumonia. While ill, his condition was a constant source of anxiety to all classes of people. He recovered, but his little daughter Josephine died of the same disease. One cannot fail to note the intimate touches reminiscent of her in "They," published in Traffics and Discoveries" (1904). Another trip, in 1900, was to South Africa, while the Boer War was in progThe results are to be found in many poems and stories about the struggle. 66 ress. 66 In late years honors have come to him. The Nobel Prize of Literature and an honorary degree from Oxford were both awarded him in 1907. He has taken some part in politics, but he continues to write, though not so prolifically as before. His more recent books are: "Kim" (1902), a vivid panorama of India; "Puck of Pook's Hill" (1906), and "Rewards and Fairies" (1910), realistic reconstructions of English history; "Actions and Reactions (1909), a series of stories, among them "An Habitation Enforced," a rare story of the charm of English country life; and The Fringes of the Fleet" (1916), relating to the European War. 66 |