Taking a brief break from the book today to wish the legendary Robert Louis Stevenson happy birthday!  Born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland.  It’s easy to imagine Robert roaming the misty streets, dreaming about pirates and dual personalities….

Stevenson was a literary maverick who brought us adventures that were as thrilling as his life.  He is known, of course for epic works like “Treasure Island,”  the prototypical pirate adventure, which is awesome if you’re a younger reader into swashbuckling (which I once was).  But for the more adult reader, the dark and twisted alleyways of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” might prove more intriguing.  That certainly is the case for college students when I’ve taught this book.  Yes, the story itself is riveting, and the theme of the duality is particularly engaging to 19-year-olds trying to figure out who they are.  The thing that really got them interested in the book was when I told them about how it was written.  Get this: old Bob got a stack of paper, a bunch of inkwells, and a big bottle of cocaine.  As I’m sure my dear reader knows, one received one’s cocaine from one’s physician in liquid form, which liquid you would mix with wine and drink (they may not have had electric light, but they knew How To Live back then).  So RLS sits there drinking his cocaine and scribbling away, hour after hour, and bangs out a draft of the book in three days!  So he immediately goes back to read it, decides it’s crap, and throws it on the fire.  He sits back down, takes a big belt of cocaine and wine, and starts writing again.  Three days later…draft #2 is complete!  And that draft went on to be an absolute classic.

So cheers to Robert Louis Stevenson, a man who lived and wrote at the edge of his own boundaries.  And for doing his best work whilst addled on a 6-day liquid cocaine bender.  Cheers!

Now back to work…some of us don’t have liquid cocaine and wine as fuel.

N.P.: “Werewolves of London” – Adam Sandler