RLS

 Today is Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday.  Like Jorge Luis Borges I am an admirer of Stevenson, and have written about him.  Treasure Island is one of the few perfect books I know of, not a sentence in it wrong, the effects of motion, light, aliveness so strong and delicate.  N.C. Wyeth's illustrations can almost (nto quite) do it justice:  that aquamarine sky, that sea-light that pales colors.  

But read if you haven't The Suicide Club for an exquisitely constructed story, The Pavilion on the Links for a model thriller, all polished to gemlike gloss.  Wiothout for a moment being precious in the other wrong sense.

Tomorrow:  Why We must all abandon LiveJournal, alas.