Conferences
2013: RLS2013, “Stevenson, Time and History”, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, July 2013. The conference organizers are Dr Chris Danta and Associate Professor Roslyn Jolly of the School of English, Media and Performing Arts.
2011: Robert Hampson, ʻIsland Stories: Treasure Island and Victoryʼ, at the one-day course on ʻNarrative Voice in Victorian Fictionʼ, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford (University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education), 19 March 2011.
2011: Roger G. Swearingen, ʻDid Robert Louis Stevenson Ever meet Mark Twain? – And Other Biographical Bywaysʼ: Robert Louis Stevenson Silverado Museum, Calistoga, CA, 6 April 2011, 7 p.m.
2010: VISAWUS 15th Annual Conference: Oceania and the East in the Victorian Imagination; 28-30 October, 2010; Honolulu, Hawaii, The conference included a Stevenson panel.
2010: RLS2010: Locating Stevenson, the sixth biennial Stevenson Conference; 8-10 July 2010; University of Stirling, Scotland. Conference website | Conference Report (PDF)
2008: RLS2008: European Stevenson, the fifth biennial Stevenson Conference; 30 June – 3 July 2008; University of Bergamo, Italy. Conference Programme (PDF) | Conference Slideshow | Conference Report (PDF)
R. L. Stevenson Special Session at the MLA Convention (Philadelphia, Dec. 2006).
2006: RLS2006: Transatlantic Stevenson, the fourth biennial Stevenson conference; July 2006; Hotel Saranac, Saranac Lake, N.Y., Convenors: Ann Colley and Martin Danahy. Abstracts (PDF) | Conference Programme (PDF)
2004: RLS 2004: Stevenson and Conrad: Writers of Land and Sea, the third biennial Stevenson Conference; 7-9 July 2004; the Pollock Halls, Edinburgh, Convenors: Linda Dryden with Eric Massie and Stephen Donovan. Conference Report (PDF)
2003: ‘Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson’. The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., April 26, 2003. Organized and chaired by Stephen Arata.
2002: ‘RLS 2002: R.L. Stevenson, Writer of Boundaries’ an International Conference on R. L. Stevenson, foundation conference for a biennial series, but afterwards recognized as the second biennial Stevenson conference; Università degli Studi di Milano at Villa Feltrinelli, Gargnano (Lake Garda); convenors: Richard Ambrosini & Richard Dury; August 26-30 2002. Impressions and memories. Conference Report (PDF)
2000: ‘RLS 2000: Celebrating 150 Years of Robert Louis Stevenson in Literature and Popular Culture’, Arkansas Central Library, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA; November 11 2000; convenor: William B. Jones. Publication of papers: in a proposed Stevenson festschrift dedicated to David Daiches (McFarland & Company, 2002).
2000: ‘Stevenson, Doyle’; Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle, Normandy, France; September 11-18 2000; convenors: Jean-Piertre Naugrette & Gilles Menegaldo. Publication of proceedings: under way. Conference Report (PDF)
2000: ‘Stevenson, Scotland and Samoa’, the first biennial Stevenson conference (though not convened with that intent); Department of English Studies, University of Stirling, Scotland; July 10 – 14 2000; convenor: Eric Massie. Conference Report (PDF)
1994: Yale University 1994 Centenary Conference; Yale University, New Haven, USA; 1994; convenor: ***: speakers and papers. Proceedings not published.
1994: Guelph University 1994 Centenary Conference, ‘Travels, Tales and Tempests: The Contexts of Robert Louis Stevenson’; Guelph University, Canada; 1994; convenor: Catherine Kerrigan. Proceedings not published.
Publishing
Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh) will be editing the Edinburgh Companion to Robert Louis Stevenson (Edinburgh University Press, in a series dedicated to Scottish authors; probable publication date 2009).
Tom Hubbard (2008). ‘Robert Louis Stevenson’. In Tom Hubbard, Rikky Rooksby and Edward Wakeling (eds.) Lives of Victorian Literary Figures, Part VI: Carroll, Stevenson and Swinburne by their Contemporaries. 3 vols. Pickering. 978 1 85196 905 0. $495. Reproductions of contemporary reviews etc.
News: Following the success of Kidnapped, the same scriptwriter and illustrator have been asked (again by Waverley Books of New Lanark) to prepare a graphic novel version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. Alan Grant has now completed the script and Cam Kennedy has started work on the artwork.
Richard Walker will be guest-editing a special edition of the international journal Gothic Studies (Manchester University Press) on Stevenson and asks for proposals for contributions on Stevenson and the Gothic. Deadline for submission of proposals is January 31st 2007 and for submission of essays December 1st 2007. The edition would be either Vol. 11 issue 1 or issue 2.
RLS2006: Transatlantic Stevenson, Saranac Lake, USA, 18-20 July 2006. A reminder for all who submitted abstracts for RLS2006 (even if you were unable to attend) – you are invited to submit your papers for possible inclusion in a special issue devoted to RLS2006. The deadline for submissions is December 1st.
The Journal of Stevenson Studies issue #4 will be devoted to papers delivered at RLS2006. This special issue will be edited by Professors Ann Colley and Martin Danahay.
Anne Stiles, ‘Neurological Fictions: Brain Science and Literary History, 1865-1905’. PhD dissertation in English Literature in progress (2005), UCLA Department of English. [‘Explores how […] novelists like Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Silas Weir Mitchell and H.G. Wells intervened in controversies spawned by late-Victorian neurology. Each chapter reflects a facet of the complex relationship between neurology and literature at the fin de siècle, with the aim of demonstrating the richness of this cross-disciplinary dialogue. For instance, chapter one discusses case studies of multiplex personality in Cornhill Magazine in the 1870s that may have served as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde. […] Taken together, these chapters demonstrate the myriad ways in which novelists actively shaped public opinion towards neurological innovations.’
The address of Angus Stewart Q.C to the last annual luncheon of the RLS Club of Edinburgh (16 November 2002) reviews (with forensic wit) Kidnapped and Catriona with particular reference to the Appin murder.
Swearingen, Roger. Critical biography, drawing on all the letters, manuscripts and lesser-known stories (2006: in progress; working title RLS: Spirit of Adventure; publisher: Faber).
The Edinburgh University Press (Centenary Edition ) edition of The Master of Ballantrae ed. Ian Duncan is announced for publication in September 2002 (2006: still not published). £30; ISBN 0748608621.
July 1999: Robert Louis Stevenson. Prayers Written at Vailima. Pacific Pallisades, California: The Melville Press [limited edition of 200: letterpress printed on Hiromi-Sansui rice paper, Thai Mango red endpapers, typeface Bembo, bound in a decorated red silk cover; 21 original linocut illustrations by Catherine Kanner; includes an introduction by Mrs. R.L. Stevenson on the origin of the prayers; $250, with 25% reduction for Libraries and Institutions]
Yale University 1994 Centenary Conference proceedings. Contents should include: C. Kerrigan ‘Stevenson’s Last Novels’; R. Maxwell ‘The Use and Uselessness of Money in The Wrecker’; V.Smith ‘In the South Seas’; S. Shatto ‘Far Voyages and Foreign Places’; I. Duncan ‘Stevenson’s Transparency’; J. Hollander ‘On A Child’s Garden of Verses’; P. Fielding ‘Stevenson and “primitive” writing’; C. Anderson ‘Stevenson and Calvino’; J. Crowley ‘The Dilemma of an Uncritical Readership’. Expected publication date: *** (2006: unpublished)
Guelph University 1994 Centenary Conference proceedings. Title: Travels, Tales and Tempests: The Contexts of Robert Louis Stevenson. Published by ***. Contents should include: Robert Crawford ‘”My bed is like a little boat”: Stevenson’s Voyage into Masculinity’; Carol Anderson ‘Stevenson and Calvino’; Aileen Chistianson, ‘Virginibus Puerisque: Wise Words for the Young or a Young Man at Play?’; Ian Duncan ‘Stevenson’s Transparency’; Alison Lumsden ‘Through the Crucibles of other Men’s Minds: R.L. Stevenson’s Familiar Studies of Men and Books’; Gordon Hirsch ‘Identity and Relationships in Stevenson’s Early Travel Books’; Lesley Graham ‘In The Footsteps of RLS: Travellers after Stevenson in the Cevennes’; Vincent Giroud ‘The Stevenson Collection at the Beinecke Library’; Wendy Katz & Lilian Falk ‘George Hutchison, a Canadian Illustrator of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island’; Elizabeth Waterston ‘Going for Eternity: A Child’s Garden of Verses’; Catherine Kerrigan ‘Introduction’. Expected publication date: end of 1998. (2006: unpublished)
Exhibitions
16 aprile – 22 maggio 2005; Torre Avogadro, Lumezzane (BS), Italy: I fari degli Stevenson [The Stevenson lighthouses], watercolours by Giorgio Maria Griffa.All the works are illustrated in I fari degli Stevenson. Milano: Edizioni Nuages (Carnet de voyages), 2005, €40 (or €450 with an original watercolour). 80 watercolours and some drawings in coloured pencils of the Stevenson lighthouses and surroundings visited in a tour of the Scottish coasts. Griffa has previously travelled and painted in Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands.The exhibition will later be divided in two parts and shown at (1) Nuages, via del Lauro 10, Milano, from 7 June to 9 July; (2) Davico, Galleria Subalpina 30, Torino, from 9 June to 9 July 2005.
July- August 2005: Yoshida Torajiro and R.L. Stevenson exhibition, to be held at Hagi Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where Torajiro was born.Yoshida Torajiro, one of the founders of modern Japan, is the subject of an essay by RLS (in Memories and Portraits). The exhibition is organized by Yoshida Midori, member of the RLS Club of Edinburgh and delegate at RLS2002 in Gargnano, who has written several books about RLS, illustrated with her own brush sketches.
The Monterey State Historic Park plans a “soft” re-opening of the Monterey Stevenson House in October and a Grand Re-Opening from 10 to 14 November 2004.
A series of Stevenson events at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery:
Navigating Stevenson: Digital artworks by Sara Gadd. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Friday, 31 January, 2003 – Sunday, 11 May, 2003.
“Stevenson engaged fully in Samoan life, and his stay in the Pacific was documented in the photography of members of his entourage. These images form the basis of a recreation of his presence on the island by the digital artist Sarah Gadd, a Fellow in Photography and Digital Imaging at Napier University between 2000-01. The exhibition recreates Stevenson’s presence on Samoa, featuring nine large-scale digital art works, four nineteenth-century photographic albums relating to Stevenson’s journey, and a portrait of author by Nerli. Using the latest digital techniques, the artist imaginatively reconstructs the spaces Stevenson inhabited, creating a virtual portrait of his time in the South Seas”. The exhibition catalogue, Navigating Stevenson: Digital Artworks by Sara Gadd (Edinburgh: Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2003) includes images from the exhibition, a list of biographies and further readings and a series of essays: “Introduction”, by Duncan Forbes, “Absolute Balm for the Weary”, by Elaine Greig, “Explorations Between Image and Place” by James Lawson, and “A Vitalised Museum” by Catherine Moriarty.
Robert Louis Stevenson. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Friday, 31 January, 2003 – Sunday, 11 May, 2003. Coinciding with the ‘Navigating Stevenson’ exhibition, a small exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture from the Gallery’s Permanent Collection will celebrate the life of the renowned author of Kidnapped and Treasure Island.
‘The Robert Louis Stevenson Collection at the Writers’ Museum’. A lecture by Elaine Greig at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Lecture Theatre), Wednesday 19th February 2003, 12.45 pm. Free tickets from the Portrait Gallery shop on the day.
Brian Bannatyne-Scott (accompanied by Alan Jaques) sings Vaughan Williams’ ‘Songs of Travel’. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sunday 23 March 2003, 7 pm. Tickets from the Portrait Gallery Shop, £8. Musical settings of poems by RLS; has been called ‘the English [i.e. English-language] Winterreise’.
Mirando Haz, ‘Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde and Mirano Haz’, a series of etchings inspired by Stevenson’s tale; Palazzo Feltrinelli, Gargnano (BS), Italy, 26-29 August 2002, as part of the ‘RLS 2002 Conference’. Inauguration and cocktail 26 August 2002, 6 pm. in the presence of the artist. Catalogue.
Lorenzo Mattotti, artwork for Jekyll and Hyde: Gallérie Médicis, Paris, 11 January 2002 – 16 February 2002; and then at Nuages, Milan, 28 February – 30 March 2002.
‘Brothers in the Muse’, The Writers’ Museum, Edinburgh; celebration Robert Fergusson and his influence on later Scottish poets, including RLS; 29 July – 16 December 2000.
Floral Display, Royal Highland Show 2000; The Edinburgh Parks Department has chosen RLS as the theme for the floral display at the Royal Highland Show, 2000.
Recent Acquisitions, Silverado Museum (19 May – 30 June 2000); on the 120th anniversary of the famous Scottish author’s marriage in San Francisco on May 19, 1880, the Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) Silverado Museum in St. Helena, Napa Valley, California, has opened a special exhibition featuring Stevenson’s original marriage license and other recent acquisitions.Also featured in the special exhibition are original letters and the detailed, 150-page journal that Stevenson’s stepson Lloyd Osbourne kept throughout their voyage aboard the yacht Casco to the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Hawaii in 1888-89. Like the marriage license, none of these items has been published or exhibited before. Other items include letters by Fanny, RLS and Lloyd, and the typescripts for publication (made by Lloyd Osbourne) of RLS’ s The Silverado Diary and Memoirs of Himself (final portion).
L’Hospitalet (Barcelona, Spain): The “La Bòbila” Library commemorate the 150th anniversary of R.L. Stevenson’s birth. 2nd May to 19th June 2000. Biblioteca La Bòbila, Plaça de la Bòbila 1, 08906 L’Hospitalet, Spain. Contact: Jordi Canal, Biblioteca la Bòbila Tel. 934 80 74 38 / Fax 934 38 76 67.Exhibition “L’illa del tresor” (Treasure Island), by Foundation “La Caixa”. Exhibition “Les illes del tresor” (Treasure Islands), illustrations and drawings of Treasure Island made by students of the “Escola d’Art J. Serra i Abella”. Book exhibition “R.L. Stevenson: Treasures Island”. 9th May (06:00 PM) Storytime: “A story about pirates…”, with Albert Estengre. 23th May (06:00 PM) Storytime: “Pirates!!!”, with Jaume Centelles.
Other (performances, TV programmes, films; etc.)
‘Robert Louis Stevenson: life and fiction’. David Miller, University of Glasgow, Department of Adult and Continuing Education. Mondays from 20 April 2009, 13.00-15.00 (8 meetings), University Campus.
William Gray, ‘Robert Louis Stevenson: the uncanniest Scot?’. Research forum on the ongoing impact of Freud’s essay ‘The Uncanny’, University of Chichester (26 February 2009). [The paper focussed on the influence of ‘quaint, unwholesome authors’ (i.e. Covenanters) on the young Stevenson, leading to his proposed ‘Black Man’ collection, and The Merry Men and Other Tales. Following on close readings of ‘The Merry Men’, ‘Thrawn Janet’ (which gave Stevenson himself ‘the cauld grue’, similar to Freud’s feeling of the Uncanny) and ‘The Body Snatcher’, the paper discussed Jekyll and Hyde in relation to the ‘common devotion’ Stevenson shared with James Hogg to ‘the Covenanting literature’. After suggesting the range of texts by Stevenson which could be seen as relating to the Uncanny (such as ‘Markheim’, The Master of Ballantrae, the ‘Graveyard Stories’ chapter of In the South Seas, Stevenson’s own South Sea tales; ‘The Tale of Tod Lapraik’) the paper finished by looking at Stevenson’s ballad ‘Ticonderoga’ and the illustrations by William Hole accompanying the earliest published version in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1887]
Julia Lee (Loyola Marymount University), ‘The Plot Against England: Slave Narrative and Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Stevenson’s The Dynamiter’. North American Victorian Studies Association, Annual Conference, Yale, Friday November 14 2008.
Christy Rieger (Mercyhurst College). ‘ “A Face Worth Seeing”: Unconscious Cerebration and the Face as Text in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” ‘. North American Victorian Studies Association, Annual Conference, Yale, Friday November 15 2008.
Ian Duncan (University of California, Berkeley). ‘From “Picturesque Notes” to “City of the Dead”: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edinburgh’. Wednesday 14th January 2009, 6 p.m., Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 5, University of Edinburgh. [Robert Louis Stevenson is one of Edinburgh’s most famous literary sons, yet he wrote most of his work away from it – farther and farther away from it. The Scottish settings of Kidnapped, Catriona, The Master of Ballantrae and Weir of Hermiston were imagined from Bournemouth, from the Adirondacks, and from the South Pacific. Weir of Hermiston recreates Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders in the age of Walter Scott, when the city was one of the literary capitals of Europe. By Stevenson’s time, it was a literary ghost town. The Edinburgh of his fiction belongs less to history than to memory and fantasy. The content of that fantasy will be the subject of Ian Duncan’s lecture.]
‘Dr Jekyll and his Faces on Film’ (University of Edinburgh, Summer Courses). David M. Wingrove and Rolland Man, tutors. Friday 22 August 2008, 10am – 5pm; Office of Lifelong Learning, 11 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh. [Session 1 ‘Dr. Jekyll and Victorian Melodrama’: the novel in the context of its time; comparative examination of early film versions from 1921, 1932 and 1941. Session 2 ‘Dr. Jekyll as Psycho-Sexual Nightmare’: analysis of the novel in terms of Freud, Jung and other commentators; comparative study of later film versions, including Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), Dr. Jekyll and the Women (1981) and Mary Reilly(1996).]
Beatrix Hesse (2008). ‘R. L. Stevenson’s Scottish stories of the supernatural in German’. Ninth International Conference of the European Society for the Study of English, Aarhus, Denmark, during the conference August 22-26, 2008.
Louise Welsh (2008). ‘Robert Louis Stevenson and the Theatre of the Brain’. Ullapool Book Festival, 16 May 16 2008, Macphail Theatre.
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society: John Gaul recounts tales from the life of RLS at St. John’s Presbyterian Church. Cake and champagne will be served. 13 November 2007, 7:30p.m.
Maria Teresa Bindella, ‘Biography vs. Autobiography: The Biographical Case of Robert Louis Stevenson’ at ‘Life Writing: Biography in English’, Università di Verona, 27 October 2006. To be published soon in the proceedings.
‘Poems and Songs for the Young at Heart’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, January 18 2008. Readings and musical arrangements of poems for and about children. Singer and poet Patti Smith and friends will perform works by Hans Christian Andersen, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Jean-Pierre Naugrette. ‘ “And was even this the end of so many adventures?… or was more behind?” From The Ebb-Tide to Riddle of the Sands’. 9 March 2007 at the conference ‘Aventure(s)’ held at the Université de Bordeaux III. [The much-read works of Stevenson served as ‘textual matrices’ for the adventure story and the later sub-genre of the spy story.]
Alan Riach. ‘Creative Schizophrenia in Scottish Literature: The other side of the portrait’. 7 Dec 2006, 6-6.45 pm, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. [While the theme of identity and difference is universal, there are particular Scottish ways of exploring it on account of Scotland’s multiple linguistic and literary traditions, the historical tensions between authority and egalitarianism, and the dislocating effects of rapid 19th-century urbanisation and industrialisation. The talk moved from portrait to portrait, elaborating these themes and questions with reference to work by Hugh MacDiarmid, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns and James Thomson, Henry Mackenzie, Walter Scott and James Hogg, starting with MacDiarmid and ending with Robert Louis Stevenson, the author most profoundly prophetic of the twentieth century that MacDiarmid was to inhabit. Connections were then opening to the exhibition of the work of Douglas Gordon, ‘Superhumanatural’ then running at the National Gallery of Scotland. The two Scottish authors most integral to Gordon’s work are Hogg and Stevenson.]
One Book – One Edinburgh (OBOE): 1 February-1 March 2007. Edinburgh’s first citywide reading campaign is aimed at getting Scotland’s capital reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. Thousands of free copies of three new editions of the story will be given away in February 2007, an a month of tie-in events has been planned at locations across the city.
Alan Riach. ‘Creative Schizophrenia in Scottish Literature: The other side of the portrait’. 7
Dec 2006, 6-6.45 pm, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. [An informal tour of the portraits of RLS, Jmaes Hogg, Hugh MacDiarmid, Robert Fergusson and Muriel Spark, while discussing the figure of the double in modern Scottish Literature.]
Robert Louis Stevenson Festival, North Berwick, 9-19 June 2006. Events include a musical based on Stevenson’s life and a dinner with speakers. North Berwick was a frequent family holiday destination in Stevenson’s childhood and teenage years and is a setting for ‘The Lantern Bearers’, ‘The Pavilion on the Links’ and an episode in Catriona. Now fund-raising for the Scottish Seabird Centre situated there has grown into a local Stevenson Festival, which will include film shows, a musical about Stevenson’s life, and a Festival Dinner with guests speakers Archie Leslie (a descendent) and the Sandy Stoddart, creator of the monumental Alan Breck and David Balfour sculpture in Edinburgh.
Gale O’Brien is involved in producing a local theatre production (with an original play script) of Treasure Island in June 2006. She writes: “While staying true to the original story, we have added a few flourishes of humor, music, and local color, of which I hope RLS would approve. We are performing the play with no cost to the community, and collecting copies (new and used) of Treasure Island to give as door prizes. Our intent is to inspire the youth of Sonoma County, CA to read this great work. All participants are volunteers, with a paid part time producer, writer, and director (for 2 months). We welcome any contributions of books or money. Contributors will receive a DVD of the play. Please send contributions to PegLeg Productions, 1346 Kawana Springs Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.”
Annette McLaren, ‘Hierarchical Power and Oppression in the works of Franz Kafka and Robert Louis Stevenson’. ‘Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness’, 19th – 24th March 2004, CERGE-EI, Prague, Czech Republic.
The RLS Club of Edinburgh is holding a Literary Lunch at the Hawes Inn on December 2 2005 at 11 a.m. The event starts with the screening of the 2003 documentary on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Judith Hallett. This will be followed by a discussion and lunch at 1 p.m.
The Edinburgh RLS Club has recorded a performance of one of Stevenson’s flageolet compositions, written in Samoa but with a Scottish title ‘Aberlady Links’. The manuscript is in the Monterey Stevenson Museum. The recording will be presented at the annual Club lunch on 19th November.
2006: 10,000 free copies of Stevenson’s Kidnapped will be distributed around various locations in the Edinburgh after it was selected as ‘book of the city’.
Scottish Screen has given £20,000 for the writing of a screenplay of Alberto Manguel’s Stevenson Under the Palm Trees (2003) to be produced by Ros Borland for Gabriel Films (Glasgow). [Manguel’s novella was first published in Brazil in Portuguese in 2000 (though the French edition says the original title is ‘Stevenson under the Palm Trees’). It is a fictional narrative about Robert Louis Stevenson on Samoa involving typical elements of doubling and indeterminacy that are found in Stevenson’s own fiction: RLS meets Baker, a newly arrived missionary, wearing a hat similar to his own; goes to a local feast where he admires a teenage girl, later found raped and murdered; later a hat like Stevenson’s (and Baker’s) is discovered nearby. ‘The reader is never sure whether Baker is the culprit or if Baker is a figment of Stevenson’s imagination or a manifestation of his personality’ (Brian Pendreigh, The Scotsman 13.11.05). The text is also a meditation on life and art, on Eros and Thanatos. An article in The Scotsman (13.11.05) takes the (implied) view that ‘pubic money’ should not be used for a film seen as offending Stevenson’s reputation. Others interviewed see no problem about this. ]
Anne Stiles, “Literature in Mind: Robert Louis Stevenson’s and H.G. Wells’s Fictions of Science”. ‘The Mind Project: Intersections of Philosophy, Human Science, & Humanities in the Journal Mind, 1876-1920’, Virginia Tech, December 2-4 2005.
Anne Stiles, ‘The Literary Prehistory of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’ Dickens Project Winter Conference, University of California, Davis. February 19, 2005.
Maria Teresa Bindella (Università di Verona), ‘Legal Justice in R.L.Stevenson’s Weir of Hermiston’. Friday 27th May 2005; international conference on ‘The Concept of Equity in Law and Literature’, University of Verona, 25-8 May 2005.
Jekyll and Hyde—The True Story a TV documentary (origin and author unknown) shown on the US Discovery Channel on 30 October.
David Mamet’s projected film of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (called The Diary of a Young London Physician) has been shelved (probably for financial reasons) (2003). Reports on Mamet’s screenplay suggest the following features: emphasis on sordid Victorian London, twin female roles in the Hollywood tradition, an attractive Hyde who is only subtly different in appearance from Jekyll, an idealistic Jekyll of lower-class origins who is shy around women, the omission of Stevenson’s other characters apart from Jekyll’s medical friend and colleague.
Variety (2001) reported that Director Wes Craven (A Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream) was planning to direct a new version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Apparently the project will ‘add a few twists to the original tale’.
Naugrette, Jean-Pierre, ‘La ville et ses doubles: Stevenson, Schnitzler, Kubrick’, a paper given on 16.9.04 at the single-day conference ‘La ville et ses représentations’, Université de Lyon III. [Though London is the setting for JH, it is a a vague, labyrinthine and dream-like space of polarities that becomes a metaphor of the psyche and of the text itself. Arthur Schitzler’s Traumnovelle has many affinities with JH: it too is about a successful doctor who leads a double life within a city that is nightmarish and ambiguous and within a narrative of repetitions and variations. Althugh we have no evidence that Schnitzler had read JH, Stevenson’s work was well-known in Germany in the 1920s in tranlations and films; in addition both writers shared an interest in psychology and double-life cases. Kubrick’s film version of Traumnovelle, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) transposes the action to a studio-built New York and faithfully reproduces the unsettling feeling of the protagonist moving within a strange city of his own psyche.]
‘Writing Scotland’, BBC2 Scotland, Tusdays at 20.30 from 7 September 2004: an 8-part series, each programme dedicated to a work by one of Scotland’s writers. The second, Tuesday 14 September, was Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Manfred Malzahn, ‘The Fascination of the Abominable in Conrad, Wilde, Stevenson, and Hardy’, a paper given on 12.8.04 at the 19th Triennial Conference of the International Association of University Professors of English (August 8 to 14, 2004) in Vancouver, Canada. [Near-contemporaries Conrad, Wilde, Stevenson and Hardy had an uneasy relationship with acquired ‘English literariness’, and so resemble modern postcolonial authors, also haunted by the theme of the exile and of the unredeeming journey to the centre (we might think of David Balfour at the end of Kidnapped, who feels nausea, guilt and disappointment at his contact with the hollow centre of civilization in Edinburgh). For the provincial, self-assertion is synonymous with self-annihilation, the attraction of the ‘centre’ is accompanied by both longing and loathing. All four writers share ‘an ambivalent fixation on the character of the English gentleman as an object of love and hate’. They all write stories of the downward descent of an individual under the ‘fascination of the abominable’, but in a way the real abomination is the hypocritical gentleman like Macfarlane ‘the London man’ in ‘The Body-Snatcher’, or Gentleman Brown in Lord Jim. The duality of margin and centre and its associated twofold vision can be mapped onto the duality of art and life, artist and human being: the origin of these four writers on the perimeter allows them to express these other dualities with a fresh force.]
Roger Swearingen, ‘Robert Louis Stevenson’s Darwinian Worlds of Adventure: Survival and the Fittest’: a paper given at ‘Spirit of Adventure: British and American Adventure Writing from Jonathan Swift and Robert Louis Stevenson to Margaret Maron and Doris Betts’, a seminar at the University of North Carolina (July 29-31, 2004). Roger Swearingen also gave the introductory talk on ‘Adventure as Concept and Literary Genre’.
The Alasdair McCrone and Robert Paterson stage adaptation of Kidnapped (produced by Mull Theatre and Pearth Theatre) ends its successful tour of Scotland at the Royal Lyceum Theare in Edinburgh 20-31st July 2004.
Mull Theatre are now preparing a new adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde, opening at Cumbernauld Theatre on September 16, with dates all over Scotland until November 27.
The Hebrides Ensemble has commissioned composer Lyell Cresswell and librettist Ron Butlin to write a new piece based on the short story ‘Markheim’. It will be about an hour long, for small instrumental ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin and cello) and two or three singers (possibly bass, tenor and mezzo soprano). the first performances are planned for April/May 2005. While the Scottish Arts Council has pledged some substantial support towards the commission of the work there is substantial fundraising still to be done. The Hebrides Ensemble would be interested in hearing from anybody or organisation with an interest in music, theatre and Stevenson¹s work who might be willing to help with funding, however modest. (Contact Carol Main, 0131/ 332 2110.) It would be a pity not to be able to hear a musical imitation of the ‘ticking of many clocks among the curious lumber of the shop’, the sudden ringing of their bells, and the loud ‘beating of the rain through all the house’ (sounding to the agitated Markheim like ‘Footsteps and sighs, the tread of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the counting, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar’ mingling with ‘the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gushing of the water in the pipes’).
‘Paris-Smitten Romantic Rascals, France to Monterey’, an informal talk on bohemian residents of Paris (including RLS and Fanny Osbourne) by Thirza Vallois, Elayne Wareing Fitzpatrick (author of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Ethics for Rascals) and Magnus Toren at Thunderbird Books in Carmel (California), Saturday November 15th, 2003, 3.30 pm.
Designer Mauro Taliani (following lines laid down by Corpo Nove’s M.D. Federico Paglai) has been influenced by RLS’s look when preparing garments for the Winter 2003 Menswear Collection of the Italian Fashion company Corpo Nove. Photographer Mark Johnston took shots in The Writers’ Museum, Edinburgh, at the end of July.
On (or near) September 4th 2003, BBC 4 will be showing an edition of The Big Readfeaturing Treasure Island versus Lord of the Rings. Claire Harman spoke in support of the former. And the winner is . . . Treasure Island.
August 21 2003, 8 pm, Saranac Lake Free Library: the annual Commemoration of RLS’ stay in Saranac Lake, New York. This event, in its 18th year, is put on by the Festival of American Music/Gregg Smith Singers. Presentations usually include original “Gomerisms,” which are Stevensonian-type epigrams, plus some speakers on Stevenson and/or his era, and his poetry set to music. The same day at 3PM to 6PM is an “Open House” with free admission to the Stevenson Memorial Cottage. Both events are free, open to the public and refreshments are provided.
(June 2003) The Master of Ballantrae. Early planning stages for a major feature film to be made by Hannah Productions (Scottish actor John Hannah). Screenplay by Mike Cullen.
The Ben Gunn Society. The Ben Gunn Society. 2003. CD. [Los Angeles band have dedicated their debut album to a folk-rock opera about Ben Gunn].
2003 (11-16 August). Tusitala – Teller of Tales, is a new dramatised reading which will be presented at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The work is based on the words of Stevenson, his family and friends, acquaintances and critics, features extracts from works such as An Inland Voyage, The Amateur Emigrant, Treasure Island and Kidnapped, and is intended for the newcomer or those partly familiar with the author’s works. The reading will be presented in period costume. The performance runs from Monday 11th to Saturday 16th of August 2003 at 5.30pm (finishing 6.45). The venue is Diverse Attractions, Riddles Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. (The building is one of the Old Town’s finest 16th century houses). Tickets (£5) can be obtained at the venue on the night or in advance at the Fringe Box Office. The performing group are the Mercators, one of Edinburgh’s oldest established amateur drama groups.
The Edinburgh National Portrait Gallery’s new ‘After Hours’ programme of events at 6 p.m. includes ‘Readings from Robert Louis Stevenson’s letters and short story, “The Beach of Falesá”’ in the Navigating Stevenson exhibition room on 1st May 2003.
Richard Ambrosini, ‘Robert Louis Stevenson e il motivo del viaggio’ [RLS and travel writing], Seminario AIA [Associazione Italiana di Anglisti], ‘Victorian Studies Today: Methods and Perspectives’ at “Gabriele d’Annunzio” University, Pescara 14-15 March 2003.
Stevenson quoted in the Arkansas Supreme Court. Bill Jones sends in the following report: ‘Stevenson, our favorite sometime lawyer, was quoted in a per curiam handed down today by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The document is a ceremonial observance titled “In the Matter of the Retirement of Judge Phillip Bruce Purifoy,” and the relevant sentence reads, in part: “The main thing of all,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “must still be justice,” and Judge Purifoy has consistently sought that high goal…. The quotation is from “Catriona”/”David Balfour” (Chapter 3); it also appears as an epigraph at the beginning of Volume 336 (1999) of the Arkansas Reports.
Julia Reid (Univ. of Aberstwyth, Wales). ‘Robert Louis Stevenson and the “Romance of Anthropology”‘. MLA/New York, Madison Room, Hilton Hotel. Discussion Group on Scottish Literature, in the panel ‘#643. Scottish Anthropology: The Art and Science of “Man”‘. Sunday, 29 December, 9:00 – 10:30 p.m.
Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., April 26, 2003. The day is organized and chaired by Stephen Arata. It is possible that RLS will be the subject of other events at the Smithsonian in the ‘Scotland at the Smithsonian’ festival (June 25-29 2003) and associated events (April-June 2003).
Brian Bannatyne-Scott (accompanied by Alan Jaques) sings Vaughan Williams’ ‘Songs of Travel’. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sunday 23 March 2003, 7 pm. Tickets from the Portrait Gallery Shop, £8.
December 2002. Randall House Rare Books of Santa Barbara, California, have an extensive Stevenson collection for sale. The collection belonged to a close friend of Isobel Strong and Fanny Stevenson when they lived in Santa Barbara and many of the item came originally from the estate of Isobel Strong. The catalogue, first published 12 months ago with about 900 items, now contains 448 items.
Treasure Island events in Bristol March 2003: Cultural Development has the aim of getting Bristolians involved in arts and culture and as part of this they are launching the first Bristol Book Club in March 2003 with Treasure Island. The Bristol Evening Post will be serialising Treasure Island in its entirety, illustrated with drawings by schoolchildren from local schools; reading events in schools and libraries with 5,000 copies of the book being provided free of charge; film days; Helen Dunmore and Justin Cartwright have agreed to be patrons; Donna Tartt, Claire Harman and P D James will probably be involved in the publicity campaign and a special evening of celebration of Stevenson and his work; an illustrated reader’s guide to Treasure Island; another proposed project is to ask hundreds of the best past and present illustration students at the University of the West of England to illustrate a different page from the book, and include a display of books and reproductions of previous interpretations in the resultant exhibition. A booklet has been produced A Guide to Treasure Island (published by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership).
Thursday, November 7, 7:00 p.m: ‘Robert Louis Stevenson: Spirit of Adventure – Previews of a Work in Progress’, Lecture by Dr. Roger Swearingen, Monterey Public Library.
Judy Hallet’s Jekyll and Hyde Documentary (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (‘Great Books Series’, US Learning Channel) will be broadcast in the US on Friday November 8th 2002, at 10 pm (EST) and again on Saturday November 9 2002, at 3 (?pm) on TLC (The Learning Channel). It will also be broadcast in Europe on The Discovery Channel, at a date not yet decided. These times were then cancelled: broadcasting will be at a date yet to be fixed.
10 August 2002: A contribution on Vailima by Claire Harman to the “Excess Baggage” programme on Radio 4 about what present-day Samoans think of Stevenson and includes some walking round Vailima, up Mt Vaea, etc, as well as some snatches of ‘Requiem’ sung by Samoans.
28 August 2002: the Adirondack Film Society will show “Treasure Island” [the 1934 version, one of the most interesting adaptations of the story] with Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore at the Hotel Saranac on Main Street at 7pm as a benefit for the RLS Society. Tickets are $15 for non-members, $10 for members, $5 under 12. Refreshments provided and Cash Bar. Preceded by a talk by Charles Alexander of Paul Smiths College on the film, and a question and answer session following. The next day, Thursday, August 29th, the Stevenson Cottage of Saranac is holding an Open House from 3-6 pm at 11 Stevenson Lane. Free admission to all, with refreshments by the Reviewers Club. Later, at 7pm is the Commemoration of Stevenson’s stay in Saranac Lake, at the Saranac Lake Free Library, with refreshments and various talks and songs, in collaboration with the Gregg Smith Singers and Adirondack Festival of American Music.
22 May 2002: Prof. Maria Teresa Bindella (University of Verona): ‘Medical science and the medical gaze in Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ / ‘La scienza medica e lo sguardo medico in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde di R.L.Stevenson’. International conference “Letteratura e Scienza / Literature and Science”, Hotel Casale, Colli del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno), 20-21-22 May 2002.
February 2002: Carmel (California), 4 p.m. Saturday, February 16 2002, at the Thunderbird Book Shop in the Barnyard – Elayne Wareing Fitzpatrick, freelance writer and Humanities instructor at Monterey Peninsula College, will discuss her new books Doing It with the Cosmos: Henry Miller’s Big Sur Struggle for Love Beyond Sex and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Ethics for Rascals, citing unexpected affinities between the two.
May 2002: Salt Lake City (Utah), 1 p.m. Saturday, May 25, at the King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East – similar presentation. [“Miller and Stevenson not only have important wisdom for our time,” the author maintains, “but they also serve as caveats for people planning to play house together.” American poet Walt Whitman, a mentor to both writers (impersonated by actor Dale Forbes) will introduce the event. Afternoon highlights will include singing of Lillian Bos Ross’ Ballad of the South Coast by Magnus Toren, curator of the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, and introduction of cover portraits artist, Shell Fisher.]
Anne C. Colley will be giving a paper on paper on “Stevenson’s Pyjamas” in one of the Victorian literature sessions of the forthcoming annual Modern Language Association Meeting (MLA) to be held from December 27-30 in New Orleans. [‘Taking it cue from a tailor’s bill made out to “R. L. Stevenson, Samoa” from Chorley, the tailor in Sydney, the paper discusses how Stevenson’s choice of apparel in the South Seas was as much linked to his existence on the islands as were the subjects and words of his writing. His attention to his attire offers us some sense not only of the fabric of Stevenson’s experiences and, indirectly, of his prose, but also of how, through his clothing, he attempted to reconfigure his body and graft himself, physically and intellectually, onto his new surroundings — efforts that expose both the ambiguities of exile and the confusions of cross-cultural dressing or fertilization.’]
September 2001: work should start on an hour-long documentary film on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde the US television Learning Channel (Great Book Series), produced and directed by Judy Hallet. [key themes; general plot; psychological aspects; some clips from movies; interviews with experts; interweaving all this with the life and times of Stevenson]
16-26 August 2001: Hyde and Seek! Performance celebrating RLS in Middle Queen Street Gardens (opposite Stevenson’s house at 17 Heriot Row) by the Crossfire Theatre Company, 8.15 pm
2001: Saturday August 25th, 7.30 p.m. at the Stevenson House, Monterey, California: “Pieces of Eight and The Prudent Sailor – Including Velvet Coat, The Ragged Luck of Robert Louis Stevenson”, written & performed by Keith Decker. Tickets are $12.00 (for reservations: phone (831) 375-0195 by Aug. 21,2001).
2001: Sunday 29th July 2001 at the University of Stirling, Scotland: Tom Hubbard (University of Edinburgh) will give a paper on ‘The Overseas Reception of the Work of Robert Louis Stevenson, during his Lifetime and before 1900’ (11 a.m., Room 2V2). Part of the Conference entitled “The Production of Culture: The Scottish Press in a National and International Context 1800-1880”, July 28– 29 2001.
2001: “Lettres anglaises”, a series of 26 programmes on English-language writers broadcast on Télé 5 (France), includes one on Stevenson: 30 March, 21.15-21.30.
Théâtre de Cherbourg, France; 30 Jan-3 Feb 2001: L’île au Trésor. [adaptation by Alan Boone, Compagnie La Machine à rêver]
“The Body Snatcher” will be read on BBC Radio 4, in a series of ghost stories (called “The Red Room”) Monday 18 December to Friday 29 December (exc. Christmas Day) in the “Woman’s Hour” drama section at 10.45am and repeated at 7.45pm. Date of the Stevenson story not yet fixed.
Dec. 5th 2000 – January 14th 2001: The Melting Pot Theatre company present A Child’s Garden. (by Louis Rosen, Arthur Perlman & Charlotte Maier (book); Louis Rosen (music); dir. Lori Steinberg, chor. Robert La Fosse) at Theatre 3 (311 West 43rd Street, New York). Reservations: Ticket Central at 212.279.4200, from 1 – 8 pm [free interpretation of a part of Stevenson’s life and works: Stevenson in San Francisco in 1880 with writer’s block thinks back to the final summer of his childhood in his grandfather’s garden and is inspired to start the sketches that would become A Child’s Garden of Verses]
November 15 2000: Public Radio International’s news magazine “The World,” (a co-production of WGBH-Boston and the BBC World Service), broadcast a four-and-a-half minute piece on Stevenson’s travels, for which Ian Campbell of Edinburgh and Jason Pierce were interviewed.
20 Nov 2000: the Merchants o Renoun, a readers’ theatre group, present Precipitous City, a performed anthology of RLS on Edinburgh, at Colinton Kirk.
150th anniversary events at Monterey (RLS Club of Monterey): (i) Nov. 9th, talk by Barry Menikoff; (ii) 10 Nov., inauguration of a porcelain on steel panel (paid for by the members of the Club) in Simoneau Plaza with images of Simoneau, his restaurant and RLS, several RLS quotes and a brief note on the firendship between Jules and Louis; (iii) all Nov., Monterey Public Library, exhibition of recently-donated Simoneau memorabilia relating to Stevenson and Fanny. [The Monterey Stevenson House will be closed for 12-18 months for restoration, but scholars will be given access to the collections]
“RLS 2000: Robert Louis Stevenson in Literature and Popular Culture” events, sponsored by The Central Arkansas Library System, Main Library, 101 Rock Street, Little Rock, AR 72201 USA, 9-12 November 2000. [6-13 November was proclaimed “Robert Louis Stevensoin Week” by the Governor of Arkansas.] (i) 9 November: screening and discussion (moderated by Marc H. Arnold) of Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, (ii) 10 November: talk by Jenni Calder at Little Rock Central High School, (iii) 10 and 12 November: An original readers’ theatre presentation, Home From Sea, based on Stevenson’s writings, (iv) 11 November: academic symposium, (v) 11 November: the Performance Arts Department of the University of Arkansas stage an original adaptation of The Beach of Falesà, incorporating music and dance, (vi) 12 November: dramatization of The Bottle Imp by the Little Rock Parkview High School Drama Department, (vii) 9-12 November: An exhibit of Stevensonian first editions, illustrated editions, derivative versions etc. at the Main Library. Stevenson titles from Classics Illustrated at the Main Library, Little Rock, Arkansas.
150th anniversary events in Edinburgh: (i) 11 Nov.: Edinburgh RLS Club annual lunch; Carlton Highland Hotel; actors John Sheddon & Michael David will give readings from Stevenson’s works; (ii) 13th Nov.: commemorative service, St. Giles, 11 am; (iii) 13th Nov., 12.30 : Rutherford’s Bar- RLS Club presentation of plaques and a book; (iv) 13th Nov., 1 pm: The Writers’ Museum – ‘Happy Birthday RLS’ drink to celebrate the 150th anniversary of RLS’s birth, with readings by actor John Shedden. (v) 16th November: reception at Stevenson’s House, 17 Heriot Row; Roger Swearingen and other Stevenson scholars will be present.
25 August 2000: ‘Stevenson’s Edinburgh’, readings by four contemporary authors (Ian Rankin, Alice Thompson, Candia McWilliams and James Robertson) of descriptions of Edinburgh by RLS together with readings of descriptions of the city from their own works. The Post Office Theatre, Charlotte Square, 6-7 pm
23 August 2000: ‘Stevenson: A Life’, celebration of RLS and his works by Gavin Bell, Jenni Calder and Robert Crawford; The Post Office Theatre, Charlotte Square, 5.30-6.30 pm
18-28 August 2000: Hyde and Seek! Performance celebrating RLS in Middle Queen Street Gardens (opposite Stevenson’s house at 17 Heriot Row) by the Crossfire Theatre Company, 8.30 pm
14 July 2000: recital of musical settings of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson by Sir Thomas Allen, accompanied by Roger Vignoles. Buxton Opera House, 7 pm (part of the Buxton Festival 2000). Music by Coleridge-Taylor, Quilter, Stanford and Vaughan Williams (‘Songs of Travel’)
2nd-20th August 2000: Ultimate Islands (the story of RLS and his wife), by Michael David, performed by the Skerry Vhor Company: Michael David (RLS), Maev Alexander (Fanny), Clive Marlowe (Colvin and others), Alex Holt (director) at the Dynamic Earth Theatre, Edinburgh (Fringe Festival); similar to the 1999 production (slightly changed text), which was highly praised by The Scotsman: ‘a gem of a play… beautifully written… Try to see this, even if you see nothing else on the Fringe’, and by The Evening News ‘painting a vividly sensitive portrait of the writer in all his guises, this grips superbly – the quality of the script and of the trio of performances are first class’.
May 1999: The Corona “New Attractions” site (specializing in film news scoops) announces preparations (script stage) for a new version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: producer Art Linson (for New Regency), director Harold Becker, script David Mamet; main actor (unconfirmed) Al Pacino. ” Dark Horizons reports that word of this script surfaced in a recent NPR interview, again stating that Mamet had indeed written it for Al Pacino,” ” Preliminary reports tell us that this adaptation would be much closer to the original Stevenson novel than many other film versions that preceded it”.
August 1999: Roger Swearingen was special guest in a discussion of Treasure Island on the Talk of the Nation call-in Book Club of the Air, National Public Radio, 19. [“Very middlebrow, but quite amusing for the attitudes of the callers” – R.S.]
1999 Edinburgh Festival: The Laird of Samoa by John Cargill Thompson with John Shedden as RLS (11 – 30 Aug. 1999, Netherbow Theatre, Edinburgh)
Marky, (adaptation of Markheim) written by Martin Hannan, dir. by John Clyde, performed by the Counterfeiters Theatre Company of Glasgow (6-15 Aug. 1999, Famous Grouse Theatre, 5 Chambers Street, Edinburgh)
Ultimate Islands (the story of RLS and his wife), by Michael David, performed by Michale David and others (19-29 Aug. 1999, Famous Grouse Theatre, 5 Chambers Street, Edinburgh)
29 April 1998: lecture on ‘The Stevenson Portraits by Nerli’; speaker, R. Neil; City Art Centre, 7.30 p.m. (organized by the RLS Club & City of Edinburgh Art Centre).
A library of 250 literary classics, accompanied by a series of CD-ROMs, is to be sent to every secondary school in Great Britain. The list, composed by a team of academics, includes The Master of Ballantrae, Weir of Hermiston and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. (information from The Times 6.1.98).
3 December 1997: the 1997 RLS Memorial Service/Lecture at Vailima, W. Samoa; speaker, Dr Roger G. Swearingen.
(autumn 1997) British TV version of The Ebb Tide starring Robbie Coltrane.
The Vandegrifter by James Bowman was performed by Gill Bowman during the 1997 Edinburgh Festival at the Valvona & Crolla Theatre.
Stevenson is among thirty-two authors, scientists, etc., whose names have been engraved on the parapet of Little Rock’s New Main Library, which opened 20 September 1997. A list of nominees was prepared on which library cardholders voted. RLS’s name is between Einstein and Thucydides above the front doors. (information from William B. Jones)
Mary Reilly (Stephen Frears, 1996): review and full details by James Berardinelii; review by HervéLucien (in French) for Taktik; review by Ed Kelleher; review by Luca Ragazzi (in Italian); review by Jack Witzig.
The Monterey RLS Club is planning to raise a life-size sculpture of RLS and Jules Simoneau together with an interpretative mural at Simoneau Plaza, Monterey.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, dir. Rodney Gibbons (?Fries/Schulz, UK/Canada); actors: Jack Palance. Announced in ‘pre-production’ in 1996
June 1998: announced TV docudrama Robert Louis Stevenson’s America, written and directed by James S. Culp for the non-profit Film History Foundation, about Stevenson’s life and work in America. RLS is played by Geoff Blaisdell, who played RLS in the 1994 California production of Neil Wilkie’s musical Teller of Tales. Shooting starts fall 1998 in California; broadcast planned for the 150th anniversary of Stevenson’s birth in the year 2000. The FHF is presently trying to raise the remaining $5,000 of the $15,000 needed to release grants by humanities councils in California and Hawaii. (Film History Foundation, 650 5th St., Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94107; tel: (415) 777-1020; fax: (415) 777-3453.)
March 1998: announced British TV film of Deacon Brodie starring Catherine McCormack.
Announced (for summer 1998) release of new film of St. Ives (‘an entertaining romp’ J. Calder).