![\"Robert](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Robert_Louis_Stevenson-300x300.jpg\")
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The son and grandson of prominent Scottish engineers, Louis was expected to follow in their footsteps. He dutifully attended engineering school, and excelled there, but upon graduation he disappointed his parents by announcing that he intended to become a writer rather than a civil engineer. Later he would disappoint them again by marrying Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, a pistol-packing American divorcee who was 12 years his senior.<\/p>\n
But following his heart led him ultimately to happiness and success. When he died at age 44 of a cerebral hemorrhage, he was not at a desk in Scotland doing a job he hated, but rather at his home in the South Pacific, happily married and doing a job he loved, his novels Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde having won him enduring fame.<\/p>\n
“An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.”<\/p>\n
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850, one hundred seventy-three years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The son and grandson of prominent Scottish engineers, Louis was expected to follow in their footsteps. He dutifully attended engineering school, and excelled there, but upon graduation he disappointed his parents by announcing that he intended to become a writer rather than a civil engineer. Later he would disappoint them again by marrying Fanny Van … <\/p>\n