February 17, 2006
san francisco has a long-standing reputation as a literature-loving town, as evidenced by government statistics ranking us as having the highest per-capita spending on books in the country. over the decades this city has nurtured a great number of notable writers from mark twain to dashiell hammett.
however, there’s one literary memorial in town that has always puzzled me. that is the apparently incongruous monument to robert louis stevenson set in the midst of the open-air living room of chinatown, portsmouth square.
robert louis stevenson? i know him as the author of one of my most beloved boyhood books, “treasure island”, but what was the connection with san francisco - much less chinatown?
for post-podcast edification:
» stevenson essays - especially across the plains
» all things stevenson
» one of a legion of stevenson biographies
- SFWeekly: “Nonconformity Still Reigns”
- #34: the san francisco twins
- Pacifica is back!
- sparkletack interviewed - VerySpatial podcast
- #62: samuel holladay, pioneer squatter of lafayette park
musical support:
thanks to 2-3D for “last symmetrical angel”, courtesy of the podsafe music network, my faithful podcast music suppliers.
2 responses to “#47: robert louis stevenson — chinatown treasure”
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trackbacks & pingbacks:
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Pingback from book review — “the bottle imp” » Sparkletack - the San Francisco History Podcast
February 15, 2008 at 2:15 pm[...] This odd little tale was brought to my attention by a listener who could not believe that I hadn’t mentioned it in my podcast about Robert Louis Stevenson. [...]
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Pingback from And I quote: “Buried Treasure in San Francisco?” » Sparkletack - the San Francisco History Podcast
June 11, 2008 at 6:23 pm[...] have been considering verse 6 (which has a Robert Louis Stevenson Connection). Who knew there was a Robert Louis Stevenson / San Francisco connection? You did — and it turns out that it might fit even [...]
