“Here you have this little shrine to commemorate Robert Louis Stevenson and to elevate and put idealization and beauty into the life of the town.” — Edgar A. Alderman, president, University of Virginia, Aug. 25, 1923 Those are the words with which this series began, spoken by the ...

How often does it happen that a stranger comes to your house, you let him in, give him a seat, and before you say “how can I help you,” the stranger looks up at you and says, “What do you need?” It happened at least once at the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage in Saranac Lake ...

British Representative Nicholas Rankin was born way too late to employ the bragging right his predecessors had enjoyed, that of having a personal friendship with the object of the cult of personality known as the Stevenson Society of America. Like the author’s stepdaughter, Mrs. Isobel Field, ...

Nicholas Rankin was born in 1949 and currently lives in Ramsgate, England, with his wife who is also an author. They have a daughter who lives in France. Books by Nicholas Rankin (all published by Faber and Faber): 1. “Dead Man’s Chest: Travels After Robert Louis Stevenson” (1987) — ...

“You must understand that I shall be a nomad, more or less, until my days are done … I must be a bit of a vagabond; it’s your fault after all, isn’t it? You shouldn’t have had a tramp for a son.” — RLS to his mother, 1874 The Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage in Saranac ...

“There is something singularly enticing in the idea of going rent-free, into a ready-made house.” — “The Silverado Squatters,” Robert Louis Stevenson When rumors were spreading throughout the village in the fall of 1980 that Jack Delahant’s youngest son, Mike, was back in town ...