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Treasured IslandsBy Lowell D. HolmesWisconsin Bookwatch, March 2004: “Treasured Islands: Cruising The South Seas With Robert Louis Stevenson is an intriguing study of classic author Robert Louis Stevenson during his last years, and following his search for health and his travels abroad on the seas. Stevenson’s studies of Polynesian cultures, framed against the background of life in the 1880s on European colonized and often exploited islands, makes for an in-depth portrait of this great man’s memorable travels and cultural discoveries. Treasured Islands is a unique contribution to community and collegiate library biography collections.” Latitudes & Attitudes, July/August 2003: Sailing, February 2003: “The South Seas were not only a great source of inspiration for legendary author Robert Louis Stevenson, they were also physically and spiritually life sustaining. Stevenson's best-loved novels, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are still widely read today, more than 100 years after they were first published. What is less widely known is that the author spent his final years sailing about the South Pacific in a variety of ships in search of an island utopia, or at least an idyllic island climate that would help restore his failing health. “Lowell D. Holmes' new book, Treasured Islands, is an intriguing, thoroughly researched account of Stevenson's Pacific wanderings and offers fresh insights on Stevenson as a man obsessed by tropical seas but sadly stricken with a bronchial ailment that slowly but steadily sucked the life out of him at age 44. To fully understand Stevenson as a writer and as a man you must understand how important these islands were to him, how they flowed through his soul. An anthropologist and an author, Holmes became intrigued by Stevenson while working on his doctorate degree in Samoa. Fortunately, Holmes is more than a scholar, he is also a sailor and I suspect his book, which is filled with nautical details, will appeal more to sailors than literature students. I'm certain it would have pleased Stevenson. “The book opens in San Francisco, California, where Stevenson and his eccentric but devoted family arranged to charter the sweet sailing schooner, CASCO, for an expedition to the South Pacific. After a shaky start, the Stevenson clan, which consisted of the author's American wife Fanny, her son Lloyd, Stevenson's mother and Valentine, their French maid, settled in to life at sea. The captain and crew were brusque but capable seamen and 93-foot CASCO raised the marquesas one month out of San Francisco, a classic trade wind passage. “Stevenson was a curious and unusual traveler for the times. Among other things, he insisted on meeting local people on their own terms and had genuine respect for native cultures. In Nuka Hiva he concluded that Melville's fanciful tales of cannibalism in the islands were unwarranted. The Stevensons sailed through the dangerous reefs of the Tuamotus archipelago and on to Tahiti but didn't find it to be the paradise they were seeking. A short time after arriving, Stevenson announced to Fanny, ‘Papeete is too depressing a place in which to end our happy marriage. I have therefore decided not to die just yet.’ “CASCO eventually sailed north to Hawaii where the Stevensons jumped ship. Stevenson and Fanny then arranged to charter the 69-ton EQUATOR, a rough and ready copra trader. This sturdy vessel took them south again, this time to the Gilbert Islands and later to Samoa, where Stevenson at last found his South Seas Island. Three miles inland from the port of Apia, the Stevensons purchased 300 acres, locally called Vailima, and working side by side, cleared the land. Stevenson, who had been sickly for years, was proud that his health allowed him to work the land. He wrote to a friend, ‘Nothing is so interesting as weeding, clearing and path making.’ “The Stevensons eventually made one more South Pacific voyage, this time aboard the large sailing steamer JANET NICOLL sailing to Sydney. But in the end they returned to Samoa, where Stevenson spent his last days, writing and living his dream. Treasured Islands, which includes photos of Stevenson, his Samoan neighbors and family, as well as some wonderful line drawings of the EQUATOR and JANET NICOLL, is a delightful literary voyage.” Excerpted from Good Old Boat, May/June 2002: “The Wise Owl, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Pussycat, his wife (manipulative and ever-seasick Fanny), took some money – he had a bundle – and sailed the pea-green Pacific amidst gilt splendor and crimson plush on the black-hulled schooner, CASCO. The yacht's 340-pound designer, owner, and physician said the trip helped him lose 60 pounds, a dubious benefit for the sickly, tall, 98-pound author of Treasure Island and A Child's Garden of Verses. “CASCO's captain was arrogant Otis, suspected of murdering his own uncle to obtain both the uncle's widow and a share of his boat. Otis ridiculed Robert Lewis Stevenson (he preferred to be known as RLS) as a lubberly ignoramus. Also aboard: Fanny's son, Lloyd, a lifetime fop destined to die a millionaire; RLS's mom, Maggie, the only voyager immune to seasickness; the family's sexy French maid, Valentine; their Chinese cook who claimed to be Japanese and called himself Antone; and four argumentative crew members, all unfit to navigate. “Having met the family, imagine sailboat decks rolling in Pacific seaways, their gone-native Bohemian cargo breathing the intoxicating perfumes off Nuka Hiva, Faka Rava, Tahiti, Manihiki, Noumea, Samoa, and other landfalls. CASCO could cover 250 sea miles in 24 hours. “Son and grandson of Scottish engineers and lighthouse keepers, RLS was cursed from infancy with the lung disease that killed him. He found relief in the Pacific's balmy island climate. He spent years wandering, established an enormous mansion, and had to work hard to pay for his lifestyle; he wrote 700,000 words in his last four years. “Fanny was a lifelong artist; RLS was an insatiable amateur anthropologist with professional yearnings. His notes detail dress, behavior, social mores, and history. He exchanges gifts, studies indigenous pride, admires the cultures, shoots the surf, endures gales, and searches for new harbors. And as he coughs his life away, he writes gloriously. “The biography's author, a seasoned sailor himself, who has degrees in literature and anthropology, is a Stevensonian expert who has visited Samoa four times. His fascinating book is an authoritative interlude with an immortal author, his voyages, thoughts, and relationships, the islands he loved, and the three ships that shaped his life. Conveniently, it's also a compact volume that fits any boat shelf.” Excerpted from Midwest Book Review, March 2002: “Treasured Islands: Crossing the South Seas with Robert Louis Stevenson by Lowell Holmes (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Wichita State University) is a personal look at a beloved and renowned author of classics in terms of his high adventures on the South Pacific between 1888 and 1890. Life on the islands, European religious influence, and the saga of indigenous populations are all covered in this dramatic, exciting, and well-researched account. Biographer Lowell Holmes draws upon his impressive expertise regarding the life and work of Robert Louis Stevenson (he produced a documentary film on Stevenson in the Pacific) to deftly craft a work of historical accuracy and insight. Treasured Islands is very highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library collections, and a ‘must’ for admirers of Robert Louis Stevenson's literary works.” Excerpted from The Wichita Eagle, February 2002: “What initially sets Holmes' book apart from its predecessors is his access to newly discovered documentation and his love of sailing. Indeed, his detailed accounts of the ships, crews and perils of the sea crossings add color and character to a chapter in Steveson's life that others often summarize…He latches on to the significance of Stevenson's South Seas writings and lets them guide his course. Not only are these works more profound, original and humane than the adventure stories that made the Scotsman so pupular, but Stevenson's last years as a writer proved to be both coda and core of his career… At its finest moments, then, Treasured Islands reads like a novel, giving voice to Stevenson's urgent quest – a tale bristling with drama and intrigue, adventure and romance… Holmes tells this noble, haunting story passionately and precisely, keeping the search for paradise alive in our imaginations and showing how few of us are equal to its costs.”
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