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Treasured islands : cruising
the South Seas with Robert Louis Stevenson / Lowell D. Holmes. - Dobbs
Ferry (N.Y.) : Sheridan house, 2001. -
XV-281 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
ISBN 1-57409-130-1
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NOTE
DE L'ÉDITEUR : Robert Louis Stevenson is one of the
best-loved writers in the English language. Over 30 biographies have
been written about him, yet this highly readable account of the last
years of his life and his death in Samoa is very different.
Treasure Islands is the account of Stevenson's
desperate search for health, and his fulfillment of a life-long
ambition of crossing broad oceans in tall ships to gain an
understanding of what it means to share a cultural world beyond the
frontiers of civilized society. It is the story of a literary giant and
his supportive but somewhat eccentric family — his
wife Fanny, mother Maggie and stepson Lloyd — and
the ships — the Casco, the Equator,
and the Janet Nicoll — that
transported them to high adventure in the South Pacific between the
years 1888 and 1890.
The story also
has other interesting characters — capable and
colorful boat crews, beachcombers, island potentates and their subjects
in the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Tuamotus, Hawaii and Samoa. It describes
life in the late 1880s on these islands, European economic
exploitation, cultural stability and change of indigenous populations,
and the day-to-day life aboard commercial sailing vessels. An eager
student of Polynesian cultures, Stevenson lived in the South Pacific
for the remainder of his short life.
| ❙ | Lowell
D. Holmes, a writer and film maker, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus
of Anthropology at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. He has
produced a documentary film on Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific.
He is the author of several academic books on anthropological topics
and especially Samoa. In addition to his academic interests, he has
been a lifelong sailor. |
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| CONTENTS |
Introduction
- The
Casco, A schooner to paradise
- The
Marquesas, the Land of Men
- The
Tuamotus, the Dangerous desert islands
- Tahiti,
the pearl of the Pacific
- Hawaii,
crossroads of the Pacific
- The
Equator chronicle, copra and
kings
- Samoa,
down payment on a dream
- The
Janet Nicoll, the Jumping
Jenny adventure
- Vailima,
home is the sailor, home from the sea
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
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| COMPLÉMENT
BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE |
- Robert Louis Stevenson,
« Chants
du voyage », Paris : Les Belles
Lettres, 1999
- Robert
Louis Stevenson, « Dans
les mers du Sud », Paris : Payot,
1995
- Robert
Louis Stevenson, « Les pleurs de Laupepa :
En marge de l'histoire, huit années de troubles aux Samoa »,
Paris : Payot, 1995
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- Lowell D. Holmes,
« Samoan islands bibliography »,
Wichita (Kansas) : Poly Concepts pub., 1984
- Lowell
D. Holmes, « Quest for the real Samoa : the
Mead/Freeman controversy and beyond », South Hadley
(Mass.) : Bergin & Garvey publishers, 1987
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| mise-à-jour : 18
septembre 2005 |
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