An Anniversary Programme, arranged by Cecil Lewis
The Wireless Orchestra, conducted by John Ansell
It was on December 3, 1894, that Robert Louis Stevenson was struck down on the verandah of his house at Vailima, in Samoa, with apoplexy, and the same evening he died. Only a year before he had published two of his most important books, 'Catriona,' the sequel to 'Kidnapped,' and 'Island Nights' Entertainments,' a volume that included, in 'The Bottle Imp,' one of the great short stories of the world's literature. It would be hard to find a writer of romances who enjoyed so great a contemporary reputation as Stevenson, and who left behind him so considerable a cult, the survival of which is demonstrated by the still increasing demand for cheap editions of his works. Although his fame was made by 'Treasure Island,' 'Kidnapped,' and similar stories, his essays became equally popular, and in addition he has left, in his 'Defence of Father Damien,' a piece of English worthy to rank with the first of Swift's 'Drapier's Letters' as a model of strong, virile, controversial prose.