Books and Authors - Sunday Stamps II

Young Folks, a magazine for children, serialised a story between 1881 and 1882. The story was credited to 'Captain George North.'

On 14 November 1883 Cassell & Co published it as a book in the author's name.

Another Young Folks' story appeared in May/July 1886, followed by a second book.

Ill health in his later years caused the author to travel in the South Pacific and spend time in the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti and New Zealand. He eventually settled in the Samoan Islands where he built a family property which became his home for the remainder of his life.

On 29 April 1969 Samoa commemorated the author and his book on the 75th anniversary of his death.

I remember reading both of those books when I was boy.

I know the story of Stevenson's third book published in 1886. You all must know it as well.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

It has also appeared as 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and as just 'Jekyll and Hyde.'

The fourth book of Stevenson on the Samoan stamps was an unfinished novel, set in the Napoleonic Wars, cut short by his sudden death in 1894 from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Weir of Hermiston - (1896 Chatto & Windus)

Robert Louis Stevenson's tombstone rests atop Mount Vaea in Samoa.

Weir of Hermiston can be read as a virtual book here. Hermiston is a suburb of Edinburgh. In 1907 the city of Hermiston, Oregon was named after the book.

For other authors and their works check out Sunday-Stamps-II-110. where there is another Scottish connection.