DEEP can mean either of the following: Department of Econometrics and Political Economy (, DEEP) of HEC Lausanne in Switzerland

Deep (mixed martial arts), a Japanese organization also known as DEEP

zh:DEEP

Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	John Key
Honorific-suffix	MP
Alt	Profile photo of John Key
Office	38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor general	Anand SatyanandJerry Mateparae
Deputy	Bill English
Term start	19 November 2008
Predecessor	Helen Clark
Office2	31st Leader of the Opposition
Deputy2	Bill English
Term start2	27 November 2006
Term end2	8 November 2008
Predecessor2	Don Brash
Successor2	Phil Goff
Office3	12th Leader of the National Party
Deputy3	Bill English
Term start3	27 November 2006
Predecessor3	Don Brash
Constituency mp5	Helensville
Parliament5	New Zealand
Term start5	27 July 2002
Majority5	20,547 (56.49%)
Birth date	August 09, 1961
Birth place	Auckland, New Zealand
Party	National Party
Spouse	Bronagh Key (1984–present)
Children	StephieMax
Alma mater	University of CanterburyHarvard University
Signature	John Key sig.svg
Website	Official website }}

John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006.

After a career in foreign exchange, Key entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2002 representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville, a seat that he has held since then. In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. After two years as Leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory in both the November 2008 and the November 2011 general elections.

Personal life

Key was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to George Key and Ruth Key (née Lazar), on 9 August 1961. His father was an English immigrant and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. He died of a heart attack in 1967. Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr by his Austrian Jewish immigrant mother.

He attended Aorangi School, then Burnside High School, and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Canterbury in 1981. He has attended management studies courses at Harvard University.

Key met his wife Bronagh when they were both students at Burnside High School. They married in 1984. She also has a BCom degree, and worked as a personnel consultant before becoming a full-time mother. They have two children, Stephie and Max.

Before politics

Key's first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years. Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.

In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.

In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, the National Party president John Slater began working actively to recruit him. Former party leader Jenny Shipley describes him as one of the people she "deliberately sought out and put my head on the line–either privately or publicly–to get them in there".

Member of Parliament

Auckland's population growth, as evidenced in the 2001 census, led to the creation of a new electorate called Helensville, which covered the north-western corner of the Auckland urban area. Key beat long-serving MP Brian Neeson (whose own Waitakere seat had moved on paper to being a Labour seat by the boundary changes) for the selection. At the 2002 elections Key won the seat with a majority of 1,705, ahead of Labour's Gary Russell, with Neeson, now standing as an independent, coming third. Key was re-elected with ease at the 2005 election garnering 63% of votes cast in Helensville, and increased his majority again in 2008, gaining 73% of the electorate vote.

Finance spokesman

In 2004, Key was promoted to the Opposition front benches by party leader Don Brash and was made the party spokesman for finance. In late 2006 Brash resigned as leader, citing damaging speculation over his future as the reason. His resignation followed controversies over an extramarital affair, and over leaked internal National Party documents which were later published in the book ''The Hollow Men''.

Leader of the Opposition

In his maiden speech as leader on 28 November 2006, Key talked of an "underclass" that had been "allowed to develop" in New Zealand, a theme which received a large amount of media coverage. Key followed this speech up in February 2007 by committing his party to a programme which would provide food in the poorest schools in New Zealand.

He relented on his stance in opposition to Sue Bradford's Child Discipline Bill, which sought to remove "reasonable force" as a defence for parents charged with prima facie assault of their children. Many parents saw this bill as an attempt to ban smacking outright. Key and Prime Minister Helen Clark agreed a compromise giving police the discretion to overlook smacking they regard as "inconsequential".

In August 2007, Key came in for criticism when he changed his position regarding the Therapeutic Products and Medicine Bill: :"John Key had finally slipped up. National's leader had told the Herald on Tuesday he would have signed up to a New Zealand First-initiated compromise on the stalled Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill had he seen it – and was still willing to sign up – only to change his mind yesterday after his remarks appeared in print."

Also in August 2007, Labour's Trevor Mallard hinted in Parliament that Labour were going to try to link Key to the 1987 "H-Fee" scandal, which involved Key's former employer Elders Merchant Finance and a payment to Equiticorp Chief Executive Allan Hawkins. Hawkins and Elders executive Ken Jarrett were later jailed for fraud. Key forestalled the accusation by declaring that he had left Elders months before the event, that he had no knowledge of the deal, and that his interview with the Serious Fraud Office during the investigation into the affair could only have helped to convict the people involved. This statement was supported publicly by then-SFO director Charles Sturt.

Labour MPs criticised Key for not releasing specific policy information at their annual conference. Key responded that National would set its own policy agenda and that there was adequate time before the next election for voters to digest National Party policy proposals.

On 25 July 2008, Key was added to the New Zealand ''National Business Review'' (NBR) Rich List for the first time. The list details the wealthiest New Zealand individuals and family groups. Key had an estimated wealth of NZ$50 million. Key is the wealthiest New Zealand Member of Parliament.

Prime Minister

Key became Prime Minister following the general election on 8 November 2008 which signalled an end to the Labour-led government of nine years under Helen Clark. The National Party, promoting a policy of "change", won 45% of the party vote and 59 of the 122 seats in Parliament (including a two-seat overhang), a substantial margin over the Labour Party, which won 43 seats.

Key was sworn in as Prime Minister on 19 November 2008 along with his new cabinet. His first international outing as Prime Minister was the 20th APEC meeting in Peru the following day.

Arriving at the Ngapuhi Te Tii marae the day before Waitangi Day 2009, Key was briefly shoved and grabbed by two protesters before diplomatic protection officers pulled them off. He told reporters he was "quite shocked" but continued onto the marae and spoke, while police took the two men away and charged them with assault.

Key has also been tied with the National Cycleway Project since its conception at the national Job Summit in early 2009. He proposed it, and as Minister for Tourism, was instrumental in getting NZ$50 million approved for initial construction work.

In January 2009, after addressing Chinese New Year celebrations at the Greenlane ASB Showgrounds, Key tripped after coming down a small set of stairs in front of cameras leaving him with a broken right arm and "embarrassed".

Controversies

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Key was a proponent of Hosni Mubarak's government, citing his support of Israel and refusing to call for his resignation. When asked if Mubarak should step down, he said "no". In 2011, Key was caught up in a controversy over the purchase of government limousines which he denied knowledge of initially but later reports surfaced his office was aware. He was accused of being dishonest and eventually apologised, calling the deal sloppy. In October 2011, Key made a statement where he claimed Standard and Poor's had said at a meeting in the prior month that "if there was a change of Government, that downgrade would be much more likely", this claim was contradicted by S&P after Key's credibility had been called into question. Just before the election in November 2011, a recording was made of a conversation between John Key and ACT Party candidate John Banks that they considered private. Mr Key made a complaint to the police who began an investigation to ascertain whether any laws had been broken. He refused to answer media questions about what was said and the recording, which became known as the "teapot tapes", dominated media discussion in the days before the election. The unreleased recording allegedly concerns the leadership of ACT and disparaging remarks about elderly New Zealand First supporters.

UN Security Council bid

Key launched New Zealand's campaign for a Security Council seat at the UN General Assembly meeting in September 2009. He met briefly with US President Barack Obama and former US President Bill Clinton. While in New York, Key appeared on the ''Late Show with David Letterman''. He read out the Top Ten list, 'Top Ten Reasons You Should Visit New Zealand'.

Political views

Key's views are largely aligned with his own party's view. However he also notes the differences between his predecessor are more of style and focus rather than view. Key has in the past noted others' concern at the pace of asset sales, but argued that the arguments against selling assets in the 1980s were largely irrational. In a 2002 interview he said "some form of orientation towards privatisation" in health, education and superannuation, such as giving firms tax breaks for employer super schemes, made sense. After leading the National party to victory in the 2011 election, Key rejected that the National Party lacks a mandate to partially sell off state-owned assets, he acknowledged that some New Zealanders were anxious about the mixed ownership model. "But I think we got a mandate."

Key has a mixed voting record on social issues: he voted against the bill creating civil unions, claiming that this represented his constituents' views but he supports them personally. He was part of a large block of MPs voting to defeat a bill that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. Key has also stated that he does not oppose gay adoption.

In regard to addressing the social destruction caused by binge drinking, in 2008 Key voted for an ill-fated attempt to raise the legal drinking age from 18 back to 20 but subsequently ignored a Law Commission recommendation to increase levies on alcohol. He claimed there was 'no appetite' for such a move. A 'suppressed' report on public attitudes to alcohol law reform eventually came to light indicating that in 2010, when he made this claim, 56% of New Zealanders supported a price increase.

Key says that he believes that global warming is a real phenomenon, and that the Government needs to implement measures to reduce human contribution to global warming. Key has committed the National Party to working towards reducing greenhouse emissions in New Zealand by 50% within the next fifty years. Commentators note that as recently as 2005, Key made statements indicating that he was sceptical of the effects and impact of climate change.

Critics note that Key has changed his views on the Iraq war since becoming leader of the opposition. In 2003, as an opposition MP, Key emphasised National's position of supporting New Zealand's traditional allies, the United States and Australia. Key came under fire in the New Zealand Parliament in August 2007, when the Government claimed that had Key been Prime Minister at the time, he would have sent troops to Iraq.

Like his predecessor Helen Clark, Key views a New Zealand republic as "inevitable", although probably not for another decade. "If Australia becomes a republic there is no question it will set off quite an intense debate on this side of the Tasman," he said, "We would have to have a referendum if we wanted to move towards it." Key later stated that he is a monarchist, and that a New Zealand republic would "Not [happen] under my watch".

Religious views

Key attends church frequently but is agnostic when it comes to belief in God. He has stated that he does not believe in an afterlife, and sees religion as "doing the right thing". Key's wife, Bronagh (née Dougan) Key, is the daughter of Northern Irish emigrants of mixed religious descent. Key is the third prime minister or premier of New Zealand (after Julius Vogel and Francis Bell) with Jewish ancestry.

See also

Contents of the United States diplomatic cables leak (New Zealand)

References

External links

Prime Minister of New Zealand official website

Profile at New Zealand National Party website

Profile at Parliament of New Zealand website

Releases and speeches at Beehive website

''The New Zealand Herald'' feature: ''John Key–the unauthorised biography''

|- |- |- |-

Category:1961 births Category:Current national leaders Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Jewish politicians Category:Leaders of the Opposition (New Zealand) Category:Living people Category:New Zealand Jews Category:New Zealand National Party MPs Category:New Zealand people of British descent Category:New Zealand National Party leaders Category:Prime Ministers of New Zealand Category:University of Canterbury alumni Category:New Zealand MPs for Auckland electorates Category:People from Christchurch Category:New Zealand people of Austrian descent

ang:John Key ar:جون كي ca:John Phillip Key cs:John Key da:John Key de:John Key et:John Key el:Τζον Κέι es:John Key fa:جان کی fr:John Key ga:John Key gl:John Phillip Key ko:존 키 hr:John Key io:John Phillip Key id:John Key it:John Key he:ג'ון קי la:Ioannes Key lv:Džons Kejs lb:John Key mk:Џон Ки mi:John Key ms:John Key nl:John Key ja:ジョン・キー no:John Key nn:John Key oc:John Key uz:John Key pl:John Key pt:John Key ro:John Key qu:John Key ru:Кей, Джон sm:John Key sco:John Key simple:John Key sr:Џон Ки sh:John Key fi:John Key sv:John Key ta:ஜோன் கீ tr:John Key wuu:约翰·菲利普·凯伊 yo:John Key zh:约翰·基

Name	Robert Louis Stevenson
Birth name	Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
Birth date	13 November 1850
Birth place	Edinburgh, Scotland
Death date	3 December 1894 (aged 44)
Death place	Vailima, Samoa
Occupation	Novelist, poet, travel writer
Nationality	Scottish
Period	Victorian era
Notableworks	''Treasure Island''''A Child's Garden of Verses''''Kidnapped''''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''
Spouse	Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne
Children	Isobel Osbourne Strong (stepdaughter)Lloyd Osbourne (stepson)
Relatives	father: Thomas Stevensonmother: Margaret Isabella Balfour
Influences	Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Guy de Maupassant, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Influenced	H. Rider Haggard, Jorge Luis Borges, Javier Marías, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, Michael de Larrabeiti, Arthur Conan Doyle, Diana Gabaldon }}

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His best-known books include ''Treasure Island'', ''Kidnapped'', and ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins."

Life

Childhood

Stevenson was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850, to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, the former Margaret Isabella Balfour (1829–1897). Lighthouse design was the family profession: Thomas's own father (Robert's grandfather) was the famous Robert Stevenson, and Thomas's maternal grandfather, Thomas Smith, and brothers Alan and David were also among those in the business. On Margaret's side, the family were gentry, tracing their name back to an Alexander Balfour, who held the lands of Inchrye in Fife in the fifteenth century. Her father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton, and Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his house. "Now I often wonder", wrote Stevenson, "what I inherited from this old minister. I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them."

Lewis Balfour and his daughter both had weak chests, and often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp and chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1851. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was eleven. Illness would be a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin. Contemporary views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis or even sarcoidosis.

Stevenson's parents were both devout and serious Presbyterians, but the household was not strict in its adherence to Calvinist principles. His nurse, Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy), was more fervently religious. Her Calvinism and folk beliefs were an early source of nightmares for the child, and he showed a precocious concern for religion. But she also cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from Bunyan and the Bible as he lay sick in bed and telling tales of the Covenanters. Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in "The Land of Counterpane" in ''A Child's Garden of Verses'' (1885), and dedicated the book to his nurse. An only child, strange-looking and eccentric, Stevenson found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at age six, a problem repeated at age eleven when he went on to the Edinburgh Academy; but he mixed well in lively games with his cousins in summer holidays at Colinton. In any case, his frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, and he was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, first learning at age seven or eight, but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse. He compulsively wrote stories throughout his childhood. His father was proud of this interest; he had also written stories in his spare time until his own father found them and told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business." He paid for the printing of Robert's first publication at sixteen, an account of the covenanters' rebellion which was published on its two hundredth anniversary, ''The Pentland Rising: A Page of History, 1666'' (1866).

In November 1867 Stevenson entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. He showed from the start no enthusiasm for his studies and devoted much energy to avoiding lectures. This time was more important for the friendships he made with other students in the Speculative Society (an exclusive debating club), particularly with Charles Baxter, who would become Stevenson's financial agent, and with a professor, Fleeming Jenkin, whose house staged amateur drama in which Stevenson took part, and whose biography he would later write. Perhaps most important at this point in his life was a cousin, Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson (known as "Bob"), a lively and light-hearted young man who instead of the family profession had chosen to study art. Each year during vacations, Stevenson travelled to inspect the family's engineering works—to Anstruther and Wick in 1868, with his father on his official tour of Orkney and Shetland islands lighthouses in 1869, and for three weeks to the island of Erraid in 1870. He enjoyed the travels more for the material they gave for his writing than for any engineering interest. The voyage with his father pleased him because a similar journey of Walter Scott with Robert Stevenson had provided the inspiration for Scott's 1821 novel ''The Pirate''. In April 1871 Stevenson notified his father of his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though the elder Stevenson was naturally disappointed, the surprise cannot have been great, and Stevenson's mother reported that he was "wonderfully resigned" to his son's choice. To provide some security, it was agreed that Stevenson should read Law (again at Edinburgh University) and be called to the Scottish bar. In his 1887 poetry collection ''Underwoods'', Stevenson muses his turning from the family profession:

Say not of me that weakly I declined The labours of my sires, and fled the sea, The towers we founded and the lamps we lit, But rather say: In the afternoon of time A strenuous family dusted from its hands The sand of granite, and beholding far Along the sounding coast its pyramids And tall memorials catch the dying sun, Smiled well content, and to this childish task Around the fire addressed its evening hours.

In other respects too, Stevenson was moving away from his upbringing. His dress became more Bohemian; he already wore his hair long, but he now took to wearing a velveteen jacket and rarely attended parties in conventional evening dress. Within the limits of a strict allowance, he visited cheap pubs and brothels. More importantly, he had come to reject Christianity. In January 1873 his father came across the constitution of the LJR (Liberty, Justice, Reverence) Club, of which Stevenson and his cousin Bob were members, which began: "Disregard everything our parents have taught us." Questioning his son about his beliefs, he discovered the truth, leading to a long period of dissension with both parents:

What a ''damned'' curse I am to my parents! As my father said "You have rendered my whole life a failure". As my mother said "This is the heaviest affliction that has ever befallen me". O Lord, what a pleasant thing it is to have damned the happiness of (probably) the only two people who care a damn about you in the world.

Early writing and travels

In late 1873, on a visit to a cousin in England, Stevenson met two people who were to be of great importance to him, Sidney Colvin and Fanny (Frances Jane) Sitwell. Sitwell was a 34-year-old woman with a son, separated from her husband. She attracted the devotion of many who met her, including Colvin, who eventually married her in 1901. Stevenson was also drawn to her, and over several years they kept up a heated correspondence in which Stevenson wavered between the role of a suitor and a son (he came to address her as "Madonna"). Colvin became Stevenson's literary adviser and after his death was the first editor of Stevenson's letters. Soon after their first meeting, he had placed Stevenson's first paid contribution, an essay entitled "Roads," in ''The Portfolio''. Stevenson was soon active in London literary life, becoming acquainted with many of the writers of the time, including Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, and Leslie Stephen, the editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', who took an interest in Stevenson's work. Stephen in turn would introduce him to a more important friend. Visiting Edinburgh in 1875, he took Stevenson with him to visit a patient at the Edinburgh Infirmary, William Ernest Henley. Henley, an energetic and talkative man with a wooden leg, became a close friend and occasional literary collaborator, until a quarrel broke up the friendship in 1888. Henley is often seen as the model for Long John Silver in ''Treasure Island''.

In November 1873 Stevenson's health failed, and he was sent to Menton on the French Riviera to recuperate. He returned in better health in April 1874 and settled down to his studies, but he returned to France several times after that. He made long and frequent trips to the neighbourhood of the Forest of Fontainebleau, staying at Barbizon, Grez-sur-Loing, and Nemours and becoming a member of the artists' colonies there, as well as to Paris to visit galleries and the theatres. He did qualify for the Scottish bar in July 1875, and his father added a brass plate with "R.L. Stevenson, Advocate" to the Heriot Row house. But although his law studies would influence his books, he never practised law. All his energies were now spent in travel and writing. One of his journeys, a canoe voyage in Belgium and France with Sir Walter Simpson, a friend from the Speculative Society and frequent travel companion, was the basis of his first real book, ''An Inland Voyage'' (1878).

Marriage

The canoe voyage with Simpson brought Stevenson to Grez in September 1876, and here he first met Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne (1840–1914). Born in Indianapolis, she had married at age seventeen and moved to Nevada to rejoin husband Samuel after his participation in the American Civil War. That marriage produced three children: Isobel (or "Belle"); Lloyd; and Hervey (who died in 1875). But anger over her husband's infidelities led to a number of separations and in 1875 she had taken her children to France, where she and Isobel studied art. Although Stevenson returned to Britain shortly after this first meeting, Fanny apparently remained in his thoughts, and he wrote an essay, "On falling in love," for the ''Cornhill Magazine''. They met again early in 1877 and became lovers. Stevenson spent much of the following year with her and her children in France. In August 1878 Fanny returned to San Francisco, California. Stevenson at first remained in Europe, making the walking trip that would form the basis for ''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879). But in August 1879 he set off to join her, against the advice of his friends and without notifying his parents. He took second-class passage on the steamship ''Devonia'', in part to save money but also to learn how others travelled and to increase the adventure of the journey. From New York City he travelled overland by train to California. He later wrote about the experience in ''The Amateur Emigrant''. Although it was good experience for his literature, it broke his health, and he was near death when he arrived in Monterey, California, where some local ranchers nursed him back to health.

By December 1879 Stevenson had recovered his health enough to continue to San Francisco, where for several months he struggled "all alone on forty-five cents a day, and sometimes less, with quantities of hard work and many heavy thoughts," in an effort to support himself through his writing, but by the end of the winter his health was broken again and he found himself at death's door. Fanny, now divorced and recovered from her own illness, came to Stevenson's bedside and nursed him to recovery. "After a while," he wrote, "my spirit got up again in a divine frenzy, and has since kicked and spurred my vile body forward with great emphasis and success." When his father heard of his condition, he cabled him money to help him through this period.

Fanny and Robert were married in May 1880, although, as he said, he was "a mere complication of cough and bones, much fitter for an emblem of mortality than a bridegroom." With his new wife and her son, Lloyd, he travelled north of San Francisco to Napa Valley, and spent a summer honeymoon at an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. He wrote about this experience in ''The Silverado Squatters''. He met Charles Warren Stoddard, co-editor of the ''Overland Monthly'' and author of ''South Sea Idylls,'' who urged Stevenson to travel to the South Pacific, an idea which would return to him many years later. In August 1880 he sailed with Fanny and Lloyd from New York to Britain and found his parents and his friend Sidney Colvin on the wharf at Liverpool, happy to see him return home. Gradually, his new wife was able to patch up differences between father and son and make herself a part of the new family through her charm and wit.

Attempted settlement in Europe and the U.S.

For the next seven years, between 1880 and 1887, Stevenson searched in vain for a place of residence suitable to his state of health. He spent his summers at various places in Scotland and England, including Westbourne, Dorset, a residential area in Bournemouth. In Westbourne he named his house ''Skerryvore'' after the tallest lighthouse in Scotland, which his uncle Alan had built (1838-1844). In the wintertime Stevenson traveled to France and lived at Davos-Platz and the Chalet de Solitude at Hyères, where, for a time, he enjoyed almost complete happiness. "I have so many things to make life sweet for me," he wrote, "it seems a pity I cannot have that other one thing—health. But though you will be angry to hear it, I believe, for myself at least, what is is best. I believed it all through my worst days, and I am not ashamed to profess it now." In spite of his ill health, he produced the bulk of his best-known work during these years: ''Treasure Island'', his first widely popular book; ''Kidnapped''; ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'', the story which established his wider reputation; ''The Black Arrow''; and two volumes of verse, ''A Child's Garden of Verses'' and ''Underwoods''. At Skerryvore he gave a copy of ''Kidnapped'' to his friend and frequent visitor Henry James.

When his father died in 1887, Stevenson felt free to follow the advice of his physician to try a complete change of climate, and he started with his mother and family for Colorado. But after landing in New York, they decided to spend the winter at Saranac Lake, New York, in the Adirondacks at a cure cottage now known as Stevenson Cottage. During the intensely cold winter Stevenson wrote some of his best essays, including ''Pulvis et Umbra'', began ''The Master of Ballantrae'', and lightheartedly planned, for the following summer, a cruise to the southern Pacific Ocean. "The proudest moments of my life," he wrote, "have been passed in the stern-sheets of a boat with that romantic garment over my shoulders."

Politics

Much like his father, Stevenson remained a staunch Tory for most of his life. His cousin and biographer, Sir Graham Balfour, said that "he probably throughout life would, if compelled to vote, have always supported the Conservative candidate." During his college years he briefly identified himself as a "red-hot Socialist." By the year 1877, at only twenty-six years of age and before having written most of his major fictional works, Stevenson reflected: "For my part, I look back to the time when I was a Socialist with something like regret. I have convinced myself (for the moment) that we had better leave these great changes to what we call great blind forces: their blindness being so much more perspicacious than the little, peering, partial eyesight of men [...] Now I know that in thus turning Conservative with years, I am going through the normal cycle of change and travelling in the common orbit of men's opinions. I submit to this, as I would submit to gout or gray hair, as a concomitant of growing age or else of failing animal heat; but I do not acknowledge that it is necessarily a change for the better—I dare say it is deplorably for the worse."

Journey to the Pacific

In June 1888 Stevenson chartered the yacht ''Casco'' and set sail with his family from San Francisco. The vessel "plowed her path of snow across the empty deep, far from all track of commerce, far from any hand of help." The sea air and thrill of adventure for a time restored his health, and for nearly three years he wandered the eastern and central Pacific, stopping for extended stays at the Hawaiian Islands, where he spent much time with and became a good friend of King Kalākaua. He befriended the king's niece, Princess Victoria Kaiulani, who also had a link to Scottish heritage. He spent time at the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Samoan Islands. During this period he completed ''The Master of Ballantrae'', composed two ballads based on the legends of the islanders, and wrote ''The Bottle Imp''. He witnessed the Samoan crisis. He preserved the experience of these years in his various letters and in his ''In the South Seas'' (which was published posthumously), an account of the 1888 cruise which Stevenson and Fanny undertook on the ''Casco'' from the Hawaiian Islands to the Marquesas and Tuamotu islands. An 1889 voyage, this time with Lloyd, on the trading schooner ''Equator'', visiting Butaritari, Mariki, Apaiang and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands, (also known as the Kingsmills) now Kiribati. During the 1889 voyage they spent several months on Abemama with the tyrant-chief Tem Binoka, of Abemama, Aranuka and Kuria. Stevenson extensively described Binoka in ''In the South Seas''.

One particular open letter from this period stands as testimony to his activism and indignation at the pettiness of the "powers that be", in the person of a Presbyterian minister in Honolulu named Rev. Dr. Charles McEwen Hyde. During his time in the Hawaiian Islands, Stevenson had visited Molokai and the leper colony there, shortly after the demise of Father Damien. When Dr. Hyde wrote a letter to a fellow clergyman speaking ill of Father Damien, Stevenson wrote a scathing open letter of rebuke to Dr. Hyde. Soon afterwards, in April 1890, Stevenson left Sydney on the ''Janet Nicoll'' for his third and final voyage among the South Seas islands.

While Stevenson intended to write another book of travel writing to follow his earlier book ''In the South Seas'', it was his wife who eventually published her journal of their third voyage. (Fanny misnames the ship as the ''Janet Nicol'' in her account of the 1890 voyage, ''The Cruise of the Janet Nichol''.) A fellow passenger was Jack Buckland, whose stories of life as an island trader became the inspiration for the character of Tommy Hadden in ''The Wrecker'' (1892), which Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne wrote together. Buckland visited the Stevensons at Vailima in 1894.

Last years

In 1890 Stevenson purchased a tract of about 400 acres (1.6 km²) in Upolu, an island in Samoa. Here, after two aborted attempts to visit Scotland, he established himself, after much work, upon his estate in the village of Vailima. He took the native name Tusitala (Samoan for "Teller of Tales", i.e. a storyteller). His influence spread to the Samoans, who consulted him for advice, and he soon became involved in local politics. He was convinced the European officials appointed to rule the Samoans were incompetent, and after many futile attempts to resolve the matter, he published ''A Footnote to History''. This was such a stinging protest against existing conditions that it resulted in the recall of two officials, and Stevenson feared for a time it would result in his own deportation. When things had finally blown over he wrote to Colvin, who came from a family of distinguished colonial administrators, "I used to think meanly of the plumber; but how he shines beside the politician!"

The Stevensons were on friendly terms with some of the colonial leaders and their families. At one point he formally donated, by deed of gift, his birthday to the daughter of the American Land Commissioner Henry Clay Ide, since she was born on Christmas Day and had no birthday celebration separate from the family's Christmas celebrations. This led to a strong bond between the Stevenson and Ide families.

In addition to building his house and clearing his land and helping the Samoans in many ways, he found time to work at his writing. He felt that "there was never any man had so many irons in the fire." He wrote ''The Beach of Falesa'', ''Catriona'' (titled ''David Balfour'' in the USA), ''The Ebb-Tide'', and the ''Vailima Letters'' during this period.

For a time during 1894 Stevenson felt depressed; he wondered if he had exhausted his creative vein and completely worked himself out. He wrote that he had "overworked bitterly". He felt that with each fresh attempt, the best he could write was "ditch-water". He even feared that he might again become a helpless invalid. He rebelled against this idea: "I wish to die in my boots; no more Land of Counterpane for me. To be drowned, to be shot, to be thrown from a horse — ay, to be hanged, rather than pass again through that slow dissolution." He then suddenly had a return of his old energy and he began work on ''Weir of Hermiston''. "It's so good that it frightens me," he is reported to have exclaimed. He felt that this was the best work he had done. He was convinced, "sick and well, I have had splendid life of it, grudge nothing, regret very little ... take it all over, damnation and all, would hardly change with any man of my time."

Without knowing it, he was to have his wish fulfilled. During the morning of 3 December 1894, he had worked hard as usual on ''Weir of Hermiston''. During the evening, while conversing with his wife and straining to open a bottle of wine, he suddenly exclaimed, "What's that!" He then asked his wife, "Does my face look strange?" and collapsed beside her. He died within a few hours, probably of a cerebral hemorrhage, at the age of 44. The Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing their Tusitala upon their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea. Stevenson had always wanted his 'Requiem' inscribed on his tomb: ::''Under the wide and starry sky,'' ::''Dig the grave and let me lie.'' ::''Glad did I live and gladly die,'' ::''And I laid me down with a will.'' ::''This be the verse you grave for me:'' ::''Here he lies where he longed to be;'' ::''Home is the sailor, home from sea,'' ::''And the hunter home from the hill.''

However, the piece is misquoted in many places, including his tomb: ::''Home is the sailor, home from the sea,'' ::''And the hunter home from the hill.''

Stevenson was loved by the Samoans, and his tombstone epigraph was translated to a Samoan song of grief which is well-known and still sung in Samoa.

Monuments and commemoration

A bronze relief memorial to Stevenson, designed by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1904, is mounted in the Moray Aisle of St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Another memorial in Edinburgh stands in West Princes Street Gardens below Edinburgh Castle; it is a simple upright stone inscribed with "RLS - A Man of Letters 1850 -1894" by sculptor Iain Hamilton Finlay in 1987. A plaque above the door of a house in Castleton of Braemar asserts 'Here R.L. Stevenson spent the Summer of 1881 and wrote Treasure Island, his first great work'.

A garden was designed by the Bournemouth Corporation in 1957 as a memorial to Stevenson, on the site of his Westbourne house "Skerryvore" which he occupied from 1885 to 1887. A statue of the Skerryvore lighthouse is present on the site.

The Writers' Museum off Edinburgh's Royal Mile devotes a room to Stevenson, containing some of his personal possessions from childhood through to adulthood.

In 1994, to mark the 100th Anniversary of Stevenson's death, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a series of commemorative £1 notes which featured a quill pen and Stevenson's signature on the obverse, and Stevenson's face on the reverse side. Alongside Stevenson's portrait are scenes from some of his books and his house in Western Samoa. Two million notes were issued, each with a serial number beginning "RLS". The first note to be printed was sent to Samoa in time for their centenary celebrations on 3 December 1994.

Modern reception

Stevenson was a celebrity in his own time, but with the rise of modern literature after World War I, he was seen for much of the 20th century as a writer of the second class, relegated to children's literature and horror genres. Condemned by literary figures such as Virginia Woolf (daughter of his early mentor Leslie Stephen) and her husband Leonard, he was gradually excluded from the canon of literature taught in schools. His exclusion reached a height when in the 1973 2,000-page ''Oxford Anthology of English Literature'' Stevenson was entirely unmentioned; and ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'' excluded him from 1968 to 2000 (1st–7th editions), including him only in the 8th edition (2006). The late 20th century saw the start of a re-evaluation of Stevenson as an artist of great range and insight, a literary theorist, an essayist and social critic, a witness to the colonial history of the Pacific Islands, and a humanist. Even as early as 1965 the pendulum had begun to swing: he was praised by Roger Lancelyn Green, one of the Oxford Inklings, as a writer of a consistently high level of "literary skill or sheer imaginative power" and a co-originator with H. Rider Haggard of the Age of the Story Tellers. He is now being re-evaluated as a peer of authors such as Joseph Conrad (whom Stevenson influenced with his South Seas fiction), and Henry James, with new scholarly studies and organisations devoted to Stevenson. No matter what the scholarly reception, Stevenson remains popular worldwide. According to the Index Translationum, Stevenson is ranked the 26th most translated author in the world, ahead of fellow nineteenth-century writers Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.

Gallery

Bibliography

Novels

''The Hair Trunk or The Ideal Commonwealth'' (1877) Unfinished and unpublished.

''Treasure Island'' (1883) His first major success, a tale of piracy, buried treasure, and adventure, has been filmed frequently. In an 1881 letter to W. E. Henley, he provided the earliest known title, "The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island: a Story for Boys".

''Prince Otto'' (1885) Stevenson’s third full-length narrative, an action romance set in the imaginary Germanic state of Grünewald.

''The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' (1886), a novella about a dual personality much depicted in plays and films, also influential in the growth of understanding of the subconscious mind through its treatment of a kind and intelligent physician who turns into a psychopathic monster after imbibing a drug intended to separate good from evil in a personality.

''Kidnapped'' (1886) is a historical novel that tells of the boy David Balfour's pursuit of his inheritance and his alliance with Alan Breck in the intrigues of Jacobite troubles in Scotland.

''The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses'' (1888) An historical adventure novel and romance set during the Wars of the Roses.

''The Master of Ballantrae'' (1889), a masterful tale of revenge, set in Scotland, America, and India.

''The Wrong Box'' (1889); co-written with Lloyd Osbourne. A comic novel of a tontine, also filmed (1966).

''The Wrecker'' (1892); co-written with Lloyd Osbourne.

''Catriona'' (1893), also known as ''David Balfour,'' is a sequel to ''Kidnapped'', telling of Balfour's further adventures.

''The Ebb-Tide'' (1894); co-written with Lloyd Osbourne.

''Weir of Hermiston'' (1896). Unfinished at the time of Stevenson's death, considered to have promised great artistic growth.

''St. Ives: being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England'' (1897). Unfinished at the time of Stevenson's death, the novel was completed by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

Short story collections

''New Arabian Nights'' (1882)

''More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter'' (1885); co-written with Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson

''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables'' (1887); contains 6 stories.

''Island Nights' Entertainments'' (also known as ''South Sea Tales'') (1893) contains three longer stories.

''Fables'' (1896) contains 20 stories: The persons of the tale, The sinking ship, The two matches, The sick man and the fireman, The devil and the innkeeper, The penitent, The yellow paint, The house of Eld, The four reformers, The man and his friend, The reader, The citizen and the traveller, The distinguished stranger, The carthorse and the saddlehorse, The tadpole and the frog, something in it, Faith, half faith and no faith at all, The touchstone, The poor thing, The song of the morrow.

Short stories

List of short stories sorted chronologically. Note: does not include collaborations with Fanny found in ''More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter''.

!Title	!Date	!Collection	!Notes
"A Lodging for the Night"	1877	''New Arabian Nights''	Stevenson's first published fiction when he was 27 years old.
"The Sire De Malétroits Door"	1877	''New Arabian Nights''
"An Old Song"	1877	Uncollected
"Edifying Letters of the Rutherford Family"	1877	Uncollected
"Later-day Arabian Nights"	1878	''New Arabian Nights''
"Providence and the Guitar"	1878	''New Arabian Nights''
"The Pavilion on the Links"	1880	''New Arabian Nights''	Told in 9 mini-chapters. Conan Doyle in 1890 called it the first English short story.
"The Story of a Lie"	1879	Uncollected
	1882	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
"The Body Snatcher"	1884	Uncollected	First published in the Christmas 1884 edition of the ''Pall Mall Gazette''.
"Markheim"	1885	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''	1886	Uncollected	Variably referred to as a short story or novella, or more rarely, a short novel.
"Will O' the Mill"	1887	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
"Thrawn Janet"	1887	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
	1887	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
"The Treasure of Franchard"	1887	''The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables''
"The Misadventures of John Nicholson: A Christmas Story"	1887	Uncollected
"The Bottle Imp"	1891	''Island Nights' Entertainments''
"The Beach of Falesá"	1892	''Island Nights' Entertainments''	First published in ''The Illustrated London News'' in 1892
"The Isle of Voices"	1893	''Island Nights' Entertainments''

Other works

"Béranger, Pierre Jean de", article for the ninth edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1875–89)

''Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes'' (1879)

''Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers'' (1881), contains the essays ''Virginibus Puerisque i'' (1876); ''Virginibus Puerisque ii'' (1881); ''Virginibus Puerisque iii: On Falling in Love'' (1877); ''Virginibus Puerisque iv: The Truth of Intercourse'' (1879); ''Crabbed Age and Youth'' (1878)''; ''An Apology for Idlers'' (1877); ''Ordered South'' (1874); ''Aes Triplex'' (1878); ''El Dorado'' (1878); ''The English Admirals'' (1878); ''Some Portraits by Raeburn'' (previously unpublished); ''Child’s Play'' (1878); ''Walking Tours'' (1876); ''Pan’s Pipes'' (1878); ''A Plea for Gas Lamps'' (1878).

''Familiar Studies of Men and Books'' (1882) containing ''Preface, by Way of Criticism'' (not previously published); ''Victor Hugo’s Romances'' (1874); ''Some Aspects of Robert Burns'' (1879); ''The Gospel According to Walt Whitman'' (1878); ''Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions'' (1880); ''Yoshida-Torajiro'' (1880); ''François Villon, Student, Poet, Housebreaker'' (1877); ''Charles of Orleans'' (1876); ''Samuel Pepys'' (1881); ''John Knox and his Relations to Women'' (1875).

''Memories and Portraits'' (1887), a collection of essays.

''Aes Triplex'' (1887)

''Father Damien: an Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Honolulu'' (1890)

''Vailima Letters'' (1895)

''The New Lighthouse on the Dhu Heartach Rock, Argyllshire'' (1995). Based on an 1872 manuscript edited by R. G. Swearingen. California. Silverado Museum.

''Sophia Scarlet'' (2008). Based on 1892 manuscript edited by Robert Hoskins. AUT Media (AUT University).

Poetry

''A Child's Garden of Verses'' (1885), written for children but also popular with their parents. Includes such favourites as "My Shadow" and "The Lamplighter". Often thought to represent a positive reflection of the author's sickly childhood.

''Underwoods'' (1887), a collection of poetry written in both English and Scots.

''Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands'' (1887). Based on a famous Scottish ghost story.

''Ballads'' (1891)

''Songs of Travel and Other Verses'' (1896)

Travel writing

''An Inland Voyage'' (1878), travels with a friend in a "Rob Roy" canoe from Antwerp (Belgium) to Pontoise, just north of Paris.

''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879), two weeks' solo ramble (with Modestine as his beast of burden) in the mountains of Cévennes (south-central France), one of the first books to present hiking and camping as recreational activities. It tells of commissioning one of the first sleeping bags.

''The Silverado Squatters'' (1883). An unconventional honeymoon trip to an abandoned mining camp in Napa Valley with his new wife Fanny and her son Lloyd. He presciently identifies the California wine industry as one to be reckoned with.

''Across the Plains'' (written in 1879–80, published in 1892). Second leg of his journey, by train from New York to California (then picks up with ''The Silverado Squatters''). Also includes other travel essays.

''The Amateur Emigrant'' (written 1879–80, published 1895). An account of the first leg of his journey to California, by ship from Europe to New York. Andrew Noble (''From the Clyde to California: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Emigrant Journey'', 1985) considers it to be his finest work.

''The Old and New Pacific Capitals'' (1882). An account of his stay in Monterey, California in August to December 1879. Never published separately. See, for example, James D. Hart, ed., ''From Scotland to Silverado'', 1966.

''Essays of Travel'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1905)

Island literature

Although not well known, his island fiction and non-fiction is among the most valuable and collected of the 19th century body of work that addresses the Pacific area.

Non-fiction works on the Pacific

''In the South Seas'' (1896). A collection of Stevenson's articles and essays on his travels in the Pacific.

''A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa'' (1892).

Musical compositions

Stevenson was an amateur composer who wrote songs typical of California in the 1880s, salon-type music, entertaining rather than serious. A flageolet player, Stevenson had studied harmony and simple counterpoint and knew such basic instrumental techniques as transposition. Some song titles include "Fanfare", "Tune for Flageolet", "Habanera", and "Quadrille". Robert Hughes in 1968 arranged a number of Stevenson's songs for chamber orchestra, which went on a tour of the Pacific Northwest in that year.

See also

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park

Victorian literature

References

Secondary literature

Graham Balfour, ''The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson'', London: Methuen, 1901

John Jay Chapman "Robert Louis Stevenson", Emerson, and Other Essays''. New York: AMS Press, 1969, ISBN 0404006191 (reprinted from the edition of 1899)

David Daiches, "Robert Louis Stevenson and his World", London: Thames and Hudson, 1973, ISBN 0500130450

J. C. Furnas, ''Voyage to Windward: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson'', London: Faber and Faber, 1952

Claire Harman, ''Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography'', HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-711321-8 [reviewed by Matthew Sturgis in ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 11 March 2005, page 8]

James Pope-Hennessy, ''Robert Louis Stevenson - A Biography'', London: Cape, 1974, ISBN 0224010077

Rosaline Masson, ''Robert Louis Stevenson''. London: The People's Books, 1912

Rosaline Masson, ''The life of Robert Louis Stevenson''. Edinburgh & London: W. & R. Chambers, 1923

Rosaline Masson (editor), ''I can remember Robert Louis Stevenson''. Edinburgh & London: W. & R. Chambers, 1923

Ernest Mehew, "Robert Louis Stevenson", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford: OUP, 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2008

Roland Paxton, "Stevenson, Thomas (1818-1887)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford: OUP, 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2008

Eve Blantyre Simpson, ''Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh Days'', London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1898

Eve Blantyre Simpson, ''The Robert Louis Stevenson Originals'', [With illustrations and facsimiles], London& Edinburgh: T.N. Foulis, 1912

External links

Works

Works by or about Robert Louis Stevenson at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books original editions color illustrated)

(plain text and HTML)

Works by Robert Louis Stevenson, at the Online Books Page (plain text and HTML)

Essays by Stevenson at Quotidiana.org

151 poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, at Poetry Archive

"Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions", by Robert Louis Stevenson

''Fables'', by Robert Louis Stevenson, at The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.

Works by Robert Louis Stevenson in PDF at Ria Press.

Stevenson's writings in Scots at ScotsteXt

Steven's Library, database of books in RLS's library

About

There are over 200 published biographies of RLS

''Robert Louis Stevenson: a record, an estimate, and a memorial'', by Alexander H. Japp

''Robert Louis Stevenson'', a biography by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh

Robert Louis Stevenson: a memoir (1895), by Edmund Gosse who knew Stevenson personally

The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (1913) by Graham Balfour, Stevenson's cousin.

Robert Louis Stevenson: biography (1911), by Edmund Gosse, from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition''

Robert Louis Stevenson, biography from the ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', 1987

The bell rock lighthouse and the Stevensons: the history of an old sea tower and a family of engineers

Websites

The Robert Louis Stevenson Website at Edinburgh Napier University

''Journal of Stevenson Studies''

Robert Louis Stevenson trail GR70

Silverado Museum, California, devoted to Robert Louis Stevenson

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:British non-fiction outdoors writers Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage Category:People educated at Edinburgh Academy Category:Lallans poets Category:People from Edinburgh Category:Scottish children's writers Category:Scottish historical novelists Category:Scottish horror writers Category:Scottish novelists Category:Scottish poets Category:Scottish Presbyterians Category:Scottish short story writers Category:Scottish travel writers Category:1850 births Category:1894 deaths Category:19th-century Scottish people Category:Samoan writers Category:Fabulists Category:Maritime writers

ar:روبرت لويس ستيفنسون an:Robert Louis Stevenson az:Robert Stevenson bn:রবার্ট লুইস স্টিভেন্সন zh-min-nan:Robert Louis Stevenson be:Роберт Льюіс Стывенсан be-x-old:Робэрт Льюіс Стывэнсан bg:Робърт Луис Стивънсън br:Robert Louis Stevenson ca:Robert Louis Stevenson cs:Robert Louis Stevenson cy:Robert Louis Stevenson da:Robert Louis Stevenson de:Robert Louis Stevenson et:Robert Louis Stevenson el:Ρόμπερτ Λούις Στίβενσον es:Robert Louis Stevenson eo:Robert Louis Stevenson eu:Robert Louis Stevenson fa:رابرت لویی استیونسن fr:Robert Louis Stevenson fy:Robert Louis Stevenson ga:Robert Louis Stevenson gl:Robert Louis Stevenson ko:로버트 루이스 스티븐슨 hy:Ռոբերտ Լուիս Սթիվենսոն hr:Robert Louis Stevenson id:Robert Louis Stevenson is:Robert Louis Stevenson it:Robert Louis Stevenson he:רוברט לואיס סטיבנסון jv:Robert Louis Stevenson ka:რობერტ ლუის სტივენსონი la:Robertus Ludovicus Stevenson lv:Roberts Luiss Stīvensons lt:Robert Louis Stevenson hu:Robert Louis Stevenson mk:Роберт Луис Стивенсон ml:റോബർട്ട് ലൂയിസ് സ്റ്റീവൻസൺ mr:रॉबर्ट लुई स्टीवन्सन nl:Robert Louis Stevenson ja:ロバート・ルイス・スティーヴンソン no:Robert Louis Stevenson oc:Robert Louis Stevenson pl:Robert Louis Stevenson pt:Robert Louis Stevenson ro:Robert Louis Stevenson ru:Стивенсон, Роберт Льюис sc:Robert Louis Stevenson sco:Robert Louis Stevenson simple:Robert Louis Stevenson sk:Robert Louis Stevenson sl:Robert Louis Stevenson sr:Роберт Луис Стивенсон sh:Robert Louis Stevenson fi:Robert Louis Stevenson sv:Robert Louis Stevenson ta:ஆர். எல். இசுட்டீவன்சன் tt:Роберт Стивенсон tr:Robert Louis Stevenson uk:Роберт Льюїс Стівенсон vi:Robert Louis Stevenson war:Robert Louis Stevenson zh:羅伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森

B.W. Stevenson (October 5, 1949 - April 28, 1988), born Louis Charles Stevenson, was an American country pop artist, working in a genre now called progressive country. "B.W." stood for "Buckwheat." Stevenson is most famous for his song "My Maria", co-written with Daniel Moore.

He was born in Dallas, Texas and attended W.H. Adamson High School with such other future noted musicians as Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Larry Groce.

As recorded by Stevenson, "My Maria" became a hit, reaching #9 on ''Billboard'''s Hot 100 for the week ending September 29, 1973. The tune was covered much later by the country duo Brooks & Dunn, for whom it was a three-week #1 country hit in mid 1996. Stevenson had several other successful chart singles, including "A Little Bit of Understanding" and the original version of Daniel Moore's "Shambala", which in a cover version by Three Dog Night reached #3. However, Stevenson never again regained the success he had with the release of "My Maria". Stevenson recorded one Contemporary Christian album "Lifeline" produced by Chris Christian that had success on Christian radio with the hit "Headed Home". During the time he recorded "Lifeline", he lived next door to Chris Christian in Beverly Hills, California.

Author Jan Reid devotes a chapter to Stevenson in his book ''The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock'', dubbing him "The Voice".

Stevenson died undergoing heart valve surgery at the age of 38. Since his death, Poor David's Pub in Dallas has held an annual songwriting competition in his memory.

Discography

1972 ''B.W. Stevenson'' (RCA)

1972 ''Lead Free'' (RCA)

1973 ''My Maria'' (RCA)

1973 ''Calabasas'' (RCA)

1975 ''We Be Sailin''' (Warner Bros)

1977 ''The Best of B.W. Stevenson'' (RCA)

1977 ''Lost Feeling'' (Warner Bros)

1980 ''Lifeline'' (Home Sweet Home Records)

1990 ''Rainbow Down the Road'' (Amazing Records)

2000 ''Very Best of B.W. Stevenson'' (Collectables)

2003 ''Lead Free/B. W. Stevenson'' (Collectables)

2003 ''My Maria/Calabasas'' (Collectables)

2005 ''We Be Sailin'/Lost Feeling'' (Collectables)

Collaborators

Larry Carlton: guitar

Layton DePenning: guitar

Jim Gordon: drums

Al DeBoer: drums

Donny Dolan: drums

Joe Osborn: bass

Rod Garrison: bass

Lorna Willard: backing vocals

Venata Field: backing vocals

Chris Christian: guitar, keyboards, backing vocals

References

External links

CMT profile

Oldies.com bio

Bio of B.W. Stevenson including cause of death

B. W. Stevenson at Find A Grave

Category:1949 births Category:1988 deaths Category:People from Dallas, Texas Category:Musicians from Texas Category:American male singers

name	Bruce Guthro |
background	solo_singer |
birth name	|
alias	|
birth date	August 31, 1961 |
death date	|
origin	Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia |
instruments	|
genre	FolkCountryPop |
occupation	singer/songwriter |
years active	1994–present |
label	MCA Records (1994)EMI Music Canada (1998)RecArt (2005)Ridge Records (2009) |
associated acts	Runrig |
website	www.bruceguthro.com |
current members	|
past members	| }}

Bruce Guthro (born August 31, 1961) is a Canadian singer / songwriter, from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Guthro has recorded as a solo artist, and in 1998 also joined Scottish folk rock band Runrig, whilst still pursuing his solo career. Guthro has received several ECMA's (East Coast Music Awards), and was also host of Canadian TV show 'Songwriters Circle', on which guests included of Alan Doyle, from Canadian Band Great Big Sea. He appeared at Tønder 2007 Festival.

He resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Discography

Albums

Title	Details	Peak positions
		''[[Sails to the Wind">Music recording sales certification
! width="65"
''[[Sails to the Wind''		* Release date: 1994	MCA Records>MCA	—
''Of Your Son''		* Release date: 1998	EMI Records>EMI	6		Music Canada>CAN: Gold
''Guthro''		* Release date: 2001	* Label: EMI	—
! scope="row"		* Release date: 2006	* Label: EMI	—
''No Final Destination''		* Release date: September 7, 2009	* Label: RecArt	—
''Celtic Crossing''		* Release date: October 17, 2011	* Label: RecArt	—

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Album
		! width="45"	! width="45"	! width="45"
1997	"Walk This Road"	1	16	—
	"Falling"	15	12	39
"Ivey's Wall"	12	—	—
	"Two Story House" (with Amy Sky)	—	45	—
"Good Love"	—	27	—
	"Factory Line"	—	—	—
"Disappear"	—	—	—
"Livin' a Lie"	—	—	—
2007	"Touch"	—	—	—

Music videos

! Year	Video	! Director
	"Fiddle & Bow" (with Natalie MacMaster)	Andrew MacNaughtan
"Walk This Road"
1998	"Falling"
2001	"Disappear"

Samplers

! Year	! Title	! Album
2000	"Four Strong Winds" (with Raylene Rankin)	''Over Canada (Soundtrack)''
2010	"Acadie, Sing Me Home" (with Blair Douglas)	''Celtic Greatest''

Guest appearances

! Year	! Title	! Artist	! Album
1997	"Fiddle & Bow"	Natalie MacMaster	''No Boundaries''
2008	"Acadie, Sing Me Home"	Blair Douglas	''Stay Strong''

References

External links

Bruce Guthro Official Website

Category:1961 births Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian country singers Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian country singer-songwriters Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Nova Scotia Category:Runrig members

da:Bruce Guthro de:Bruce Guthro