112-554: The Monterey Peninsula anchors the northern portion on the Central Coast of California and comprises the cities of Monterey , Carmel , and Pacific Grove , and the resort and community of Pebble Beach . Monterey was founded in 1770 by missionary Junípero Serra and explorer Gaspar de Portolà . Portolà erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port against an expected Russian trading and settlement invasion. At
224-427: A "red-hot socialist". But already by age 26 he was writing of looking back on this time "with something like regret. ... 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." His cousin and biographer Sir Graham Balfour claimed that Stevenson "probably throughout life would, if compelled to vote, have always supported
336-590: A better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of goodwill" and a practical demonstration of "the great Theorem of the Liveableness of Life". So that if they cannot be happy in the "handicap race for sixpenny pieces", let them take their own "by-road". In late 1873, when he was 23, Stevenson was visiting a cousin in England when he met two people who became very important to him: Fanny (Frances Jane) Sitwell and Sidney Colvin . Sitwell
448-402: A cruise to the southern Pacific Ocean for the following summer. Whenever I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a thing was said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there was either some conspicuous force or some happy distinction in the style, I must sit down at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it; and tried again, and
560-444: A darker realism. He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at age 44. A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. In 2018, he was ranked just behind Charles Dickens as the 26th-most-translated author in the world. Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh , Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887),
672-476: A deadline of December 31, 2016 to reduce pumping from the Carmel River by 70%. The project has the support of Peninsula mayors water authority together with local business and community leaders. The Marina Coast Water District and Ag Land Trust have concerns about the test well pumping impacts on the area's groundwater supply and would prefer a full environmental impact report be prepared for the project. At
784-404: A detailed chronicle of the intersection of rivalries between the great powers and the first Samoan Civil War . As much as he said he disdained politics—"I used to think meanly of the plumber", he wrote to his friend Sidney Colvin, "but how he shines beside the politician!" —Stevenson felt himself obliged to take sides. He openly allied himself with chief Mataafa, whose rival Malietoa was backed by
896-509: A failure." His mother accounted the revelation "the heaviest affliction" to befall her. "O Lord, what a pleasant thing it is", Stevenson wrote to his friend Charles Baxter, "to have just damned the happiness of (probably) the only two people who care a damn about you in the world." Stevenson's rejection of the Presbyterian Church and Christian dogma, however, did not turn into lifelong atheism or agnosticism. On February 15, 1878,
1008-476: A harmonious pattern of its own. Man's one method, whether he reasons or creates, is to half-shut his eyes against the dazzle and confusion of reality...Life is monstrous, infinite, illogical, abrupt and poignant; a work of art, in comparison, is neat, finite, self-contained, rational, flowing, and emasculate...The novel, which is a work of art, exists, not by its resemblances to life, which are forced and material ... but by its immeasurable difference from life, which
1120-533: A high degree of species endemism , but also presents a unique combination of non-endemic species due to overlap of species with more northerly versus more southerly ranges. Some taxa, such as the coastal closed-cone pines (which include Monterey pine ) and the Monterey cypress are relict stands, i.e. species that once extended more widely in the mesic climate of the late Pleistocene epoch, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and moister conditions along
1232-437: A leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–1897). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and he dropped "Balfour" in 1873. Lighthouse design was the family's profession; Thomas's father (Robert's grandfather) was the civil engineer Robert Stevenson , and Thomas's brothers (Robert's uncles) Alan and David were in
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#17327661142451344-695: A part of the family through her charm and wit. The Stevensons shuttled back and forth between Scotland and the Continent, finally settling in 1884 in the Westbourne district of the southern English seaside town of Bournemouth in Hampshire (now in Dorset ). Stevenson had moved there to benefit from its sea air. They lived in a house Stevenson named 'Skerryvore' after a Scottish lighthouse built by his uncle Alan. From April 1885, 34-year-old Stevenson had
1456-913: A patient at the Edinburgh Infirmary named William Ernest Henley , an energetic and talkative poet with a wooden leg. Henley became a close friend and occasional literary collaborator, until a quarrel broke up the friendship in 1888, and he is often considered to be the inspiration for Long John Silver in Treasure Island . Stevenson was sent to Menton on the French Riviera in November 1873 to recuperate after his health failed. 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
1568-481: A production of Twelfth Night , directed by Garnet Holme of UC Berkeley and featuring future mayors Perry Newberry and Herbert Heron , with settings designed by artist DeNeale Morgan. By 1914, the club had achieved national recognition, with an article The Mercury Herald commenting "...a fever of activity seems to have seized the community and each newcomer is immediately inoculated and begins with great enthusiasm to do something... with plays, studios and studies...". In
1680-419: 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. In 1867, Stevenson's family took a lease on Swanston Cottage, in
1792-551: A spawn of inspectors, who now begin, note-book in hand, to darken the face of England". He is referring to the steady growth in social legislation in Britain since the first of the Conservative-sponsored Factory Acts (which, in 1833, established a professional Factory Inspectorate ). Stevenson cautioned that this "new waggon-load of laws" points to a future in which our grandchildren might "taste
1904-589: A stranger case still if Robert Louis Stevenson ever forgot Jules Simoneau. While in Monterey, he wrote an evocative article about "the Old Pacific Capital" of Monterey. By December 1879, aged 29, Stevenson had recovered his health enough to continue to San Francisco where 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
2016-636: A tale of European and American misconduct. His concern for the Polynesians is also found in the South Sea Letters , published in magazines in 1891 (and then in book form as In the South Seas in 1896). In an effort he feared might result in his own deportation, Stevenson helped secure the recall of two European officials. A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (1892) was
2128-465: A tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp, chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1851. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six years old, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was 11. Illness was a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin. Contemporaneous views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it
2240-607: A young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Sidney Colvin , Andrew Lang , Edmund Gosse , Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley , the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island . In 1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands , his writing turned from romance and adventure fiction toward
2352-620: Is an area of California , roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay . It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area , and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populated stretch of coastline known as Big Sur . From south to north, there are six counties that make up the Central Coast: Ventura , Santa Barbara , San Luis Obispo , Monterey , San Benito , and Santa Cruz . The Central Coast
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#17327661142452464-508: Is designed and significant. It is not clear, however, that in this there was any real basis for disagreement with James. Stevenson had presented James with a copy of Kidnapped , but it was Treasure Island that James favoured. Written as a story for boys, Stevenson had thought it in "no need of psychology or fine writing", but its success is credited with liberating children's writing from the "chains of Victorian didacticism ". During his college years, Stevenson briefly identified himself as
2576-465: Is ever a "compromise") and to invite "anarchy": it is "the sentimentalist preparing the pathway for the brute". In June 1888, Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco from Samuel Merritt 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
2688-530: Is intended to provide a reliable, long-term water supply. The project will use subsurface slant wells that draw from a brackish aquifer that consists mostly of seawater located just behind the coast line. Since the intake does not reach into the ocean, potential harm to sealife can be avoided. The wells drawing the water for desalination must not access the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin. The California state water board originally set
2800-686: Is not densely populated. The largest city in the region is Oxnard in Ventura County, with a population estimated at 203,007 in 2013. University of California campuses are found in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz , near the south and north edges of the region respectively. California State University, Monterey Bay , founded in 1994, uses facilities donated when Fort Ord was converted from military to civilian uses. California Polytechnic State University , in San Luis Obispo ,
2912-772: Is the location of the Central Coast American Viticultural Area . Geographically, the actual midpoint of the California coast lies north of Santa Cruz, near Año Nuevo State Park in San Mateo County. Neither the popular use of the term Central Coast nor that of the California North Coast include the San Francisco Peninsula counties of San Mateo and San Francisco. The Central Coast area
3024-535: Is the major north-south highway through the area. Although it travels along the coast for most of its length, Highway 1 bypasses the immediately coastline of the Monterey Peninsula and instead primarily travels inland on the eastern side of the area as a freeway. California State Route 68 provides access east to Salinas . The proposed Monterey Peninsula Supply Water Project includes a desalination facility and additional aquifer storage capacity that
3136-563: The Overland Monthly and author of South Sea Idylls , who urged Stevenson to travel to the South Pacific, an idea which returned 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 wife was able to patch up differences between father and son and make herself
3248-559: The American Civil War . Their children were Isobel (or "Belle"), Lloyd and Hervey (who died in 1875). But anger over her husband's infidelities led to a number of separations. In 1875, she had taken her children to France where she and Isobel studied art. By the time Stevenson met her, Fanny was herself a magazine short-story writer of recognised ability. Stevenson returned to Britain shortly after this first meeting, but Fanny apparently remained in his thoughts, and he wrote
3360-582: The Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner routes along the Union Pacific Railroad Coast Line that also transports freight. There are no major airports, although Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo have regional airports with commuter service. Greyhound buses serve most of the region. Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) operates bus services throughout Monterey County as far south as Big Sur on
3472-667: The Covenanters . Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in "The Land of Counterpane" in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), dedicating the book to his nurse. Stevenson was an only child, both strange-looking and eccentric, and he found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at age 6, a problem repeated at age 11 when he went on to the Edinburgh Academy ; but he mixed well in lively games with his cousins in summer holidays at Colinton . His frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, so he
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3584-467: The union with Britain (she had "majestically demonstrated her incapacity to rule Ireland") nor "landlordism" (scarcely more defensible in Ireland than, as he had witnessed it, in the goldfields of California). Rather he protests the readiness to pass "lightly" over crimes—"unmanly murders and the harshest extremes of boycotting "—where these are deemed "political". This he argues is to "defeat law" (which
3696-400: The vascular plants seaside birds beak and Eastwoods Ericameria . The closed cone pine forest habitat is dominated by Monterey pine, knobcone pine and bishop pine , and contains the rare Monterey manzanita and endangered Hickman's potentilla and Yadon's piperia ; rare plants inhabiting chaparral habitat in Monterey are: Hickman's onion and Sandmat manzanita . Other rare plants on
3808-592: The 1890s and subsequent period. Artists of the En plein air school in both Europe and the United States were seeking an outdoor venue which had natural beauty, so that Pacific Grove was a magnet for this movement. English painter William Adam and other artists moved to Pacific Grove in the early 1900s. For a number of years, John Steinbeck lived in a cottage in Pacific Grove owned by his father, Ernest, who
3920-504: The 2000 Census, the Peninsula (Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel and Pebble Beach) had 53,808 residents, 84.8% of whom were White, 8.5% Hispanic or Latino, 6.0% Asian or Pacific Islander and 1.8% were African American. The Peninsula was considerably more affluent than the national average: the percentage of households with six figure incomes being 60% higher and the percentage of households with incomes of less than $ 25,000 being 54% lower than
4032-540: The 27-year-old wrote to his father and stated: Christianity is among other things, a very wise, noble and strange doctrine of life ... You see, I speak of it as a doctrine of life, and as a wisdom for this world ... I have a good heart, and believe in myself and my fellow-men and the God who made us all ... There is a fine text in the Bible, I don't know where, to the effect that all things work together for good for those who love
4144-630: The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was held in Pacific Grove in June 1879. Modelled after the Methodist Sunday school teachers’ training camp established in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., this location became part of a nationwide educational network. In November 1879, after the summer campers returned home, Robert Louis Stevenson wandered into the deserted campgrounds: "I have never been in any place so dreamlike. Indeed, it
4256-1098: The Conservative candidate." In 1866, then 15-year-old Stevenson did vote for Benjamin Disraeli , the Tory democrat and future Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for the Lord Rectorship of the University of Edinburgh . But this was against a markedly illiberal challenger, the historian Thomas Carlyle . Carlyle was notorious for his anti-democratic and pro-slavery views. In "The Day After Tomorrow", appearing in The Contemporary Review (April 1887), Stevenson suggested: "we are all becoming Socialists without knowing it". Legislation "grows authoritative, grows philanthropical, bristles with new duties and new penalties, and casts
4368-548: The Germans whose firms were beginning to monopolise copra and cocoa bean processing. Stevenson was alarmed above all by what he perceived as the Samoans' economic innocence—their failure to secure their claim to proprietorship of the land (in a Lockean sense) through improving management and labour. In 1894 just months before his death, he addressed the island chiefs: There is but one way to defend Samoa. Hear it before it
4480-676: The Lord. Strange as it may seem to you, everything has been, in one way or the other, bringing me nearer to what I think you would like me to be. 'Tis a strange world, indeed, but there is a manifest God for those who care to look for him. Stevenson did not resume attending church in Scotland. However, he did teach Sunday School lessons in Samoa, and prayers he wrote in his final years were published posthumously. Justifying his rejection of an established profession, in 1877 Stevenson offered "An Apology for Idlers". "A happy man or woman", he reasoned, "is
4592-551: The South Seas . Stevenson left Sydney , Australia, on the Janet Nicoll in April 1890 for his third and final voyage among the South Seas islands. He intended to produce another book of travel writing to follow his earlier book In the South Seas , but it was his wife who eventually published her journal of their third voyage. (Fanny misnames the ship in her account The Cruise of the Janet Nichol .) A fellow passenger
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4704-605: The Stevensons' dinner table. Largely bedridden, Stevenson described himself as living "like a weevil in a biscuit." Yet, despite ill health, during his three years in Westbourne, Stevenson wrote the bulk of his most popular work: Treasure Island , Kidnapped , Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which established his wider reputation), A Child's Garden of Verses and Underwoods . Thomas Stevenson died in 1887 leaving his 36-year-old son feeling free to follow
4816-852: The United States in 1846. Monterey was also the site of the July 7, 1846, Battle of Monterey during the Mexican–American War . It was on this date that John D. Sloat , Commodore in the United States Navy , raised the U.S. flag over the Monterey Custom House and claimed California for the United States. In addition, many California "firsts" occurred in Monterey. These include the First theater in California , brick house, publicly funded school, public building, public library, and printing press, which printed The Californian ,
4928-561: The West Coast of the United States. It was built in 1855, and has served as an aid to navigation ever since. The city of Carmel-by-the-Sea (or Carmel for short) is commonly considered part of the Peninsula area even though the city technically is adjacent to the peninsula instead of on it. In 1902 James Frank Devendorf and Frank Powers, on behalf of the Carmel Development Company , filed a new subdivision map of
5040-506: The advice of his friends and without notifying his parents. He took a 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. He then travelled overland by train from New York City to California. He later wrote about the experience in The Amateur Emigrant . It was a good experience for his writing, but it broke his health. He
5152-584: The advice of his physician to try a complete change of climate. Stevenson headed for Colorado with his widowed mother and family. But after landing in New York, they decided to spend the winter in the Adirondacks at a cure cottage now known as Stevenson Cottage at Saranac Lake, New York . During the intensely cold winter, Stevenson wrote some of his best essays, including Pulvis et Umbra . He also began The Master of Ballantrae and lightheartedly planned
5264-532: The average daily low is 6 °C (43 °F) in January and 11.5 °C (53 °F) in September; and the average rainfall is 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per year, with 90.3% falling during November through April. During summer, fog drip is the primary source of moisture for plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low summer precipitation. The fog drip and precipitation are heaviest along
5376-444: The benefits of freedom and common to all, were truly benefits of wealth, and took their value from our neighbour's poverty...Freedom to be desirable, involves kindness, wisdom, and all the virtues of the free; but the free man as we have seen him in action has been, as of yore, only the master of many helots; and the slaves are still ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-taught, ill-housed, insolently entreated, and driven to their mines and workshops by
5488-609: The capital, on which they built the islands' first two-storey house. Fanny's sister, Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez, wrote that "it was in Samoa that the word 'home' first began to have a real meaning for these gypsy wanderers". In May 1891, they were joined by Stevenson's mother, Margaret. While his wife set about managing and working the estate, 40-year-old Stevenson took the native name Tusitala (Samoan for "Teller of Tales"), and began collecting local stories. Often he would exchange these for his own tales. The first work of literature in Samoan
5600-928: The coast and King City in the Salinas Valley. MST also offers connection service to San Jose Diridon Station , downtown Santa Cruz, and Paso Robles and Templeton in Northern San Luis Obispo County via regional routes. Santa Cruz Metro offers services within Santa Cruz County , including connections to San Jose and San Jose State and connection to MST service in Watsonville , heading south to Salinas. 35°36′N 121°06′W / 35.6°N 121.1°W / 35.6; -121.1 Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson ; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894)
5712-674: The coast and landed in Santa Barbara County in 1542. After the Spanish established the California missions in 1770, they baptized and forced the native population to labor at the missions. While living at the missions, the aboriginal population was exposed to diseases unknown to them, like smallpox and measles , for which they had no immunity, devastating the Native American population and their culture. Many of
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#17327661142455824-490: The coast ranges during the hotter, drier early and middle Holocene epoch between 6000 and 2000 BC. According to the maps of the United States Geological Survey , the highest elevation of the peninsula, 250 meters (825 feet) above sea level, is on the north-south ridge that runs the length of the peninsula. The climate is a cool Mediterranean type, strongly influenced by the prevailing winds from
5936-414: The company of the novelist Henry James . They had met previously in London and had recently exchanged views in journal articles on the "art of fiction" and thereafter in a correspondence in which they expressed their admiration for each other's work. After James had moved to Bournemouth to help support his invalid sister, Alice , he took up the invitation to pay daily visits to Skerryvore for conversation at
6048-659: The core village that became Carmel-by-the-Sea. The Carmel post office opened the same year. In 1910, the Carnegie Institution established the Coastal Laboratory, and a number of scientists moved to the area. Carmel incorporated in 1916. In 1905 the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was formed to support and produce artistic works. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake the village was inundated with musicians, writers, painters other artists turning to
6160-552: 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 significantly, he had come to reject Christianity and declared himself an atheist . In January 1873, when he
6272-571: The early 1900s, Willis Linn Jepson characterized the forests on the Monterey Peninsula as the "most important silva ever", and encouraged Samuel F. B. Morse of the Del Monte Properties Company to explore the possibilities of preserving the unique forest communities. The forests of the Monterey Peninsula are now called the Del Monte Forest . The dune area is also important, as it hosts endangered species such as
6384-561: The early 1940s, however, the fishing industry was dealt a devastating blow when the heavily overfished waters did not yield the amounts of fish needed to keep the canneries profitable. The end of big business fishing on the Monterey Bay was the beginning of several conservation efforts which eventually led to the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary . While the fishing industry
6496-409: The eastern and central Pacific, stopping for extended stays at the Hawaiian Islands, where he became a good friend of King Kalākaua . He befriended the king's niece Princess Victoria Kaiulani , who also had 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
6608-399: 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 on his having turned from
6720-523: The end of the winter, his health was broken again and he found himself at death's door. Fanny was now divorced and recovered from her own illness, and she came to his 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 28-year-old son's condition, he cabled him money to help him through this period. Fanny and Robert were married in May 1880. She
6832-429: The 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, she returned to San Francisco and Stevenson remained in Europe, making the walking trip that formed the basis for Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879). But he set off to join her in August 1879, aged 28, against
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#17327661142456944-432: The established artist colony after the bay city was destroyed. The new residents were offered home lots - ten dollars down, little or no interest, and whatever they could pay on a monthly basis. In 1907 the town's first cultural center and theatre, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Clubhouse, was built. Poets Austin and Sterling performed their "private theatricals" there. In 1911, the town's rich Shakespearean tradition began with
7056-513: The exaggerated and romantic world that, as a child, he had entered as proud owner of Skelt's Juvenile Drama—a toy set of cardboard characters who were actors in melodramatic dramas. "A Gossip on Romance" (1882) and "A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas's" (1887) imply that it is better to entertain than to instruct. Stevenson very much saw himself in the mould of Sir Walter Scott, a storyteller with an ability to transport his readers away from themselves and their circumstances. He took issue with what he saw as
7168-399: 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, To play at home with paper like a child. 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
7280-422: The family's engineering works. In 1868, this took him to Anstruther and for a stay of six weeks in Wick , where his family was building a sea wall and had previously built a lighthouse. He was to return to Wick several times over his lifetime and included it in his travel writings. He also accompanied his father on his official tour of Orkney and Shetland islands lighthouses in 1869 and spent three weeks on
7392-431: The first editor of his letters after his death. He placed Stevenson's first paid contribution in The Portfolio , an essay titled "Roads". 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 took Stevenson to visit
7504-428: The first newspaper. Colton Hall , built in 1849 by Walter Colton , was originally a public school and government meeting place. It also hosted California's first constitutional convention. Today it houses a museum, while adjacent buildings serve as the seat of local government. The Monterey post office opened in 1849. Monterey incorporated in 1889. The city has a noteworthy history as a center for California painters in
7616-446: The golf courses of Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula , the rugged coastline of Big Sur and Hearst Castle in San Simeon . Further south is Morro Rock and the port city of Morro Bay , which is adjacent to college town San Luis Obispo . The Santa Ynez Valley is home to the Central Coast Film Society, which celebrates filmmakers, cinema and media arts that are from the region, also known as "Hollywood's Backyard." The area
7728-449: The greater part of his boyhood holidays in his maternal grandfather's house. "Now I often wonder what I inherited from this old minister," Stevenson wrote. "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, so they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited
7840-425: The household was not strict in its adherence to Calvinist principles. His nurse Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy) was more fervently religious. Her mix of 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 John Bunyan and the Bible as he lay sick in bed and telling tales of
7952-408: 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 1822 novel The Pirate . In April 1871, Stevenson notified his father of his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though
8064-465: The lash of famine. In January 1888, aged 37, in response to American press coverage of the Land War in Ireland, Stevenson penned a political essay (rejected by Scribner's magazine and never published in his lifetime) that advanced a broadly conservative theme: the necessity of "staying internal violence by rigid law". Notwithstanding his title, "Confessions of a Unionist ", Stevenson defends neither
8176-748: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such painters as Arthur Frank Mathews , Armin Hansen , Xavier Martinez , Rowena Meeks Abdy and Percy Gray lived or visited to pursue painting in the style of either En plein air or Tonalism . In addition to painters many noted authors through the years have also lived in and around the Monterey area such as John Steinbeck , Robinson Jeffers , Robert A. Heinlein , Henry Miller , Ed Ricketts , and Robert Louis Stevenson . More recently, Monterey has been recognized for its significant involvement in post-secondary learning of languages other than English and its major role in delivering translation and interpretation services around
8288-421: The late 19th century the fishing industry became the area's most profitable and important economic sector. Started by mostly Italian immigrants in Monterey and Chinese immigrants in Pacific Grove, the fishing industry flourished. By the 1930s canneries lined the northern shore of the Peninsula. These canneries were the setting for the novels Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday by local author John Steinbeck . By
8400-558: The legends of the islanders, and wrote The Bottle Imp . He preserved the experience of these years in his various letters and in his In the South Seas (which was published posthumously). He made a voyage in 1889 with Lloyd on the trading schooner Equator , visiting Butaritari , Mariki, Apaiang and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands . They spent several months on Abemama with tyrant-chief Tem Binoka , whom Stevenson described in In
8512-510: The major cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, San Luis Obispo is home to America's first motel . The major highway is U.S. Route 101 , which runs north–south from Los Angeles, through most of the major communities of the Central Coast, to San Francisco. State Route 1 , a smaller but much more scenic route, connects the coastal communities, running through San Simeon , Morro Bay , and Big Sur . Amtrak maintains train service with
8624-540: The mission. Disease, starvation, over work, and torture decimated the tribe. The region is known primarily for agriculture and tourism . Major crops include wine grapes , lettuce , strawberries , and artichokes . The Salinas Valley is one of the most fertile farming regions in the United States. Tourist attractions include Cannery Row in Monterey , the Monterey Bay Aquarium , the theatres, galleries and white sand beaches of Carmel-by-the-Sea ,
8736-436: The national average. In terms of income distribution 19.8% of households had incomes of less than $ 25,000, while 27.2% had incomes between $ 25,000 and $ 50,000, 21.1% incomes between $ 50,000 and $ 75,000, 11.9% incomes between $ 75,000 and $ 100,000 and 19.8% had incomes exceeding $ 100,000 compared to 30.5%, 25.8%, 18.4%, 10.3% and 12.3% at the national level, respectively. Central Coast (California) The Central Coast
8848-684: The neighbourhood of the Forest of Fontainebleau , staying at Barbizon , Grez-sur-Loing and Nemours and becoming a member of the artists' colonies there. He also travelled to Paris to visit galleries and the theatres. He qualified for the Scottish bar in July 1875, aged 24, and his father added a brass plate to the Heriot Row house reading "R.L. Stevenson, Advocate". His law studies did influence his books, but he never practised law; all his energies were spent in travel and writing. One of his journeys
8960-634: The peninsula are: Hutchinson's larkspur , Tidestrom lupine; Gardner's yampah and Monterey knotweed . Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area , Portuguese Ledge State Marine Conservation Area , Pacific Grove Marine Gardens State Marine Conservation Area , Lovers Point State Marine Reserve , Edward F. Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area and Asilomar State Marine Reserve are marine protected areas in Monterey Bay. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems. California State Route 1
9072-474: The pleasures of existence in something far liker an ant-heap that any previous human polity". Yet in reproducing the essay his latter-day libertarian admirers omit his express understanding for the abandonment of Whiggish , classical-liberal notions of laissez faire . "Liberty", Stevenson wrote, "has served us a long while" but like all other virtues "she has taken wages". [Liberty] has dutifully served Mammon; so that many things we were accustomed to admire as
9184-530: The printing of Robert's first publication at 16, entitled The Pentland Rising: A Page of History, 1666 . It was an account of the Covenanters' rebellion and was published in 1866, the 200th anniversary of the event. In September 1857, when he was six years old, Stevenson went to Mr Henderson's School in India Street, Edinburgh, but because of poor health stayed only a few weeks and did not return until October 1859, aged eight. During his many absences, he
9296-648: The purpose of bringing visitors to the resort, and the Del Monte name is still frequently seen around town. The Hotel Del Monte was requisitioned by the Navy at the beginning of World War II , and is now the central building of the Naval Postgraduate School . The hotel's park reservation, originally used for hunting and other outdoor activities, became Pebble Beach , an unincorporated community and well-known golf resort area. The famous 17-Mile Drive
9408-514: The remaining Native Americans assimilated with Spanish and Mexican ranchers in the nineteenth century. Under Spanish law, the indigenous people were technically free individuals, but they could be compelled by force to labor without pay. With the help of the soldiers who guarded the mission, the Indians who lived near the mission were forcibly relocated, conscripted, and trained as plowmen, shepherds, cattle herders, blacksmiths, and carpenters on
9520-596: The same field. Thomas's maternal grandfather Thomas Smith had been in the same profession. However, Robert's mother's family were gentry , tracing their lineage back to Alexander Balfour, who had held the lands of Inchrye in Fife in the fifteenth century. His mother's father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton , and her siblings included physician George William Balfour and marine engineer James Balfour . Stevenson spent
9632-490: The same time, Serra founded Mission San Carlos Borromeo , second in the chain of Spanish Missions of California . Originally near the presidio, the mission later moved a few miles south to its current location at the mouth of Carmel Valley. Monterey served as the capital of upper Las Californias and Alta California from 1777 to 1848, under the flags of Spain , independent Mexico , and the United States . The city
9744-540: The spine and west side of the ridge because the prevailing winds and precipitation come from the west. The weather can be much hotter when the winds blow from the east: Since 1906, there have been 11 days with a high of 37.8 °C (100 °F) or higher; all 11 days occurred in June, September, or October. A variety of natural habitats are found on the Monterey Peninsula: littoral zone and sand dunes ; closed-cone pine forest ; and Monterey cypress. During
9856-499: The tendency in French realism to dwell on sordidness and ugliness. In "The Lantern-Bearer" (1888) he appears to take Emile Zola to task for failing to seek out nobility in his protagonists. In "A Humble Remonstrance", Stevenson answers Henry James 's claim in "The Art of Fiction" (1884) that the novel competes with life. Stevenson protests that no novel can ever hope to match life's complexity; it merely abstracts from life to produce
9968-673: The village of Swanston at the foot of the Pentland Hills , for use as a summer holiday home. They held the lease until 1880. During their tenancy, the young Robert Louis made frequent use of the cottage, being attracted by the quiet country life and the feeling of remoteness. It is likely that the time he spent there influenced his later writing as well as his wider outlook on life, particularly his love of nature and of wild places. The house and its romantic location are thought to have inspired several of his works. Each year during his university holidays, Stevenson also travelled to inspect
10080-612: The west, which blow over the Pacific Coast's cool ocean current from Alaska and the cold water that wells up from Monterey Bay's submarine canyon. At the National Weather Service 's Climate Station in the City of Monterey at 385 feet elevation, the coldest month is January, with an average daily high of 15.5 °C (60 °F); the warmest month is September, with an average daily high of 22 °C (71.5 °F);
10192-542: The world. In November 1995, California Governor Pete Wilson proclaimed Monterey as "The Language Capital of the World". Pacific Grove was founded in 1875 by a group of Methodists who modeled the town after Ocean Grove, New Jersey . In time, the butterflies, fragrant pines and fresh sea air brought others to the Pacific Grove Retreat to rest and meditate. The initial meeting of the Pacific Coast branch of
10304-586: 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. In December 1889, 39-year-old Stevenson and his extended family arrived at the port of Apia in the Samoan islands and there he and Fanny decided to settle. In January 1890 they purchased 314 + 1 ⁄ 4 acres (127.2 ha) at Vailima, some miles inland from Apia
10416-643: Was bronchiectasis or sarcoidosis . The family also summered in the spa town of Bridge of Allan , in North Berwick , and in Peebles for the sake of Stevenson's and his mother's health; "Stevenson's cave" in Bridge of Allan was reportedly the inspiration for the character Ben Gunn 's cave dwelling in Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island . Stevenson's parents were both devout Presbyterians , but
10528-592: Was 22, 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. Stevenson no longer believed in God and had grown tired of pretending to be something he was not: "am I to live my whole life as one falsehood?" His father professed himself devastated: "You have rendered my whole life
10640-550: Was 40; he was 29. He said that he was "a mere complication of cough and bones, much fitter for an emblem of mortality than a bridegroom." He travelled with his new wife and her son Lloyd north of San Francisco to Napa Valley and spent a summer honeymoon at an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena (today designated Robert Louis Stevenson State Park ). He wrote about this experience in The Silverado Squatters . He met Charles Warren Stoddard , co-editor of
10752-427: Was Monterey County Treasurer. The cottage still stands on a quiet side street, without any plaque or special sign, virtually overlooked by most Steinbeck fans. In Steinbeck's book Sweet Thursday , a chapter is dedicated to describing a (probably fictional) rivalry that arose among the town's residents over the game of roque . The Point Piños Light in Pacific Grove is the oldest continually operating lighthouse on
10864-399: Was a 34-year-old woman with a son, who was separated from her husband. She attracted the devotion of many who met her, including Colvin, who married her in 1901. Stevenson was also drawn to her, and they kept up a warm correspondence over several years in which he wavered between the role of a suitor and a son (he addressed her as " Madonna "). Colvin became Stevenson's literary adviser and was
10976-458: Was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island , Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses . Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As
11088-848: Was a canoe voyage in Belgium and France with Sir Walter Simpson, a friend from the Speculative Society, a frequent travel companion, and the author of The Art of Golf (1887). This trip was the basis of his first travel book An Inland Voyage (1878). Stevenson had a long correspondence with fellow Scot J.M. Barrie . He invited Barrie to visit him in Samoa , but the two never met. The canoe voyage with Simpson brought Stevenson to Grez-sur-Loing in September 1876, where he met Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne (1840–1914), born in Indianapolis . She had married at age 17 and moved to Nevada to rejoin husband Samuel after his participation in
11200-669: Was again unsuccessful and always unsuccessful; but at least in these vain bouts, I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction and the co-ordination of parts. I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlitt , to Lamb , to Wordsworth , to Sir Thomas Browne , to Defoe , to Hawthorne , to Montaigne , to Baudelaire and to Obermann . Robert Lewis Stevenson, " Memories and Portraits ", Chapter IV, relating how he practiced writing in his youth Stevenson's critical essays on literature contain "few sustained analyses of style or content". In "A Penny Plain and Two-pence Coloured" (1884) he suggests that his own approach owed much to
11312-625: Was founded in 1901. California State University Channel Islands opened in Camarillo in 2002, as the 23rd campus in the California State University system. The six counties that make up the Central Coast region had an estimated population of 2,348,601 according to the 2020 census. The following cities had a population over 20,000 as of the 2020 census: Travel is almost entirely by private automobile. Because of its position roughly halfway between
11424-561: Was his translation of The Bottle Imp (1891) , which presents a Pacific-wide community as the setting for a moral fable. Immersing himself in the islands' culture, occasioned a "political awakening": it placed Stevenson "at an angle" to the rival great powers , Britain, Germany and the United States whose warships were common sights in Samoan harbours. He understood that, as in the Scottish Highlands (comparisons with his homeland "came readily"), an indigenous clan society
11536-473: Was inhabited by Chumash , Ohlone , Esselen , Salinan , and other Native American people since at least 10,000 BC . Many of these communities were coastal, where the people utilized marine resources and dwelt near freshwater inflows to the Pacific Ocean. For example, there were significant communities near the mouth of Morro Creek and Los Osos Creek . Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed north along
11648-610: Was near death when he arrived in Monterey, California , where some local ranchers nursed him back to health. He stayed for a time at the French Hotel located at 530 Houston Street, now a museum dedicated to his memory called the " Stevenson House ". While there, he often dined "on the cuff," as he said, at a nearby restaurant run by Frenchman Jules Simoneau, which stood at what is now Simoneau Plaza; several years later, he sent Simoneau an inscribed copy of his novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), writing that it would be
11760-407: Was not so much like a deserted town as like a scene upon the stage by daylight, and with no one on the boards." Today, Stevenson School in nearby Pebble Beach is named after the author. The Pacific Grove post office opened in 1886, closed later that year, and was re-opened in 1887. Pacific Grove incorporated in 1889. Pacific Grove, like Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey , became an artists' haven in
11872-430: Was originally designed as a local excursion for visitors to the Del Monte, in which they could take in the historic sights of Monterey and Pacific Grove and the scenery of what would become Pebble Beach. Today, tourism serves as the Peninsula's main industry. The old Cannery Row is a tourist center lined with boutiques, restaurants, and hotels. Due in part to its geography and climate, the Monterey Peninsula has not only
11984-534: Was originally the only port of entry for taxable goods in California. All shipments into California by sea were required to go through the Custom House , the oldest governmental building in the state, and California's Historic Landmark Number One. Built in 3 phases, construction on the Custom House began in 1814 under the Spanish, the center section under Mexican rule in 1827, with the lower end completed by
12096-737: Was sent to Robert Thomson's private school in Frederick Street, Edinburgh, where he remained until he went to university. In November 1867, Stevenson entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. From the start he showed 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
12208-513: Was taught by private tutors. In October 1861, aged ten, he went to Edinburgh Academy , an independent school for boys, and stayed there sporadically for about fifteen months. In the autumn of 1863, he spent one term at an English boarding school at Spring Grove in Isleworth in Middlesex (now an urban area of West London). In October 1864, following an improvement to his health, the 13-year-old
12320-423: Was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, learning at age 7 or 8, but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse, and 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 had found them and had told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business." He paid for
12432-425: Was unprepared for the arrival of foreigners who played upon its existing rivalries and divisions. As the external pressures upon Samoan society grew, tensions soon descended into several inter-clan wars. No longer content to be a "romancer", Stevenson became a reporter and an agitator, firing off letters to The Times which "rehearsed with an ironic twist that surely owed something to his Edinburgh legal training",
12544-414: Was very important to the area, so was tourism. The Hotel Del Monte , opened in 1880, was the first true resort complex in the United States and was the forerunner to today's Pebble Beach Company. It became popular with the wealthy and influential of the day, and hosted guests from Theodore Roosevelt to Ernest Hemingway, as well as many early Hollywood stars. A train station was built in Monterey expressly for
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