Destination treasure island vitality
A soaring body in height, crazy hair and flaming red beard, a considerable wingspan for shoulders and a raucous voice that reverberated in offices, hospitals, music halls and taverns. Despite his illness and his crutch, Henley was a robust man. Wells, who dedicated The Time Machine (1895) to Henley.īack then, Henley was not only known for his relationship with literature but for his vitality. He published the early works of Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and Rudyard Kipling and became friends with a significant number of writers and playwrights like Stevenson, Conrad and H.G. Straight out of hospital after losing a limb and with one crutch under his arm, he moved to London and worked as a journalist, and later became a fairly well-known poet, critic and editor. From the age of 12, he suffered from tuberculosis, that led to the amputation of his left leg when he was about 18 and to constant pain all his life. William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) was a force of nature. Of course, he is not in any other quality or feature the least like you but the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you.” William Ernest Henley “It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot ‘John Silver’. “I will now make a confession”, wrote Stevenson to Henley. But in Stevenson’s mind, Long John Silver was not only a pirate but also a poet, and he had a recognisable name at the time: William Ernest Henley. Created by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), this character first came to life in Treasure Island (1883) and took the story by storm, relegating the protagonist and narrator James Hawkins to the position of a footnote and capturing the collective imagination. Long John Silver is the prototype of all pirates that, following his wake, have sailed on pages and celluloid. of Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson in 1893 by Henry Walter Barnett