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I enjoy listening to and participating in conversations where differing views are discussed and debated. In evaluating the strength and validity of the points made by others it’s helpful to have some insight into the history and prejudice of the speaker. A University of Oklahoma alumus that can list the many reasons why the Sooners will be the national champions of college football doesn’t carry the same weight as an analyst from a small division II school who may share the same opinion. The same goes for educators and students that protest cuts to school funding, personal injury attorneys who lobby against tort reform, and bar owners that fight smoking ordinances. Their opinions are surely prejudiced by the perceived effect on their own lives. We need to understand their motivation and the color of the lens from which they view the world through. The same applies to Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson was born November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland to parents Thomas and Margaret Isabella Stevenson ("Contemporary Authors Online"). Throughout his childhood he suffered chronic health problems, later diagnosed as Tuberculosis, which confined him to bed ("Heart o' Scotland"). He was largely raised by his nanny, Alison Cunningham (Liukkonen), who would become the strongest influence during his childhood. Cunningham had strong Calvinist convictions and often read The Old Testament to him and initiated daily prayer rituals that would become a large part of Stevenson’s early life (Liukkonen). Instead of entering the family business of designing lighthouses, Robert wanted to become a writer, he had developed this interest as an often bedridden child even though he had entered Edinburgh University ostensibly as a science student ("PoemHunter.com"). This decision upset his father, as a compromise it was decided that Robert would study for the bar; he finished school but never practiced law ("PoemHunter.com"). During school Stevenson had become known for his outrageous behavior and wild dress (Liukkonen). With his cousin Bob, he smoked hashish and visited brothels while surveying the seamy side of Edinburgh ("Contemporary Authors Online"). At the age of twenty-two he declared himself an agnostic, completing his father’s disappointment in him ("PoemHunter.com"). During the next thirteen years Stevenson married and traveled to France, America, and Belgium during which time his health continued to deteriorate. His writings during this period were reflections of his travel and of daydreams while many times confined to his bed. In 1888, Stevenson, his wife, son, and widowed mother began touring the South Pacific, eventually settling in an estate he purchased in Vailima, Samoa ("Contemporary Authors Online"). He continued his writing, and prayers he penned and were used by his family in Samoa provide witness that in his later years he had returned to his belief in God and Christianity ("Heart o' Scotland"). At the time of his death on December 3, 1894 he was working on Weir of Hermiston which was left unfinished, but promised to be his finest work ("Contemporary Authors Online"). His ashes are buried at the summit of Mount Vaea on Samoa alongside his wife who followed him in death in 1914 ("Contemporary Authors Online").
