Quote of the Week
February 17, 2010
All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. ~Noah Webster
February 8, 1894
February 08, 2010
The world of English school-boys goes into shock as the news is telegraphed from Rome: R. M. Ballantyne, beloved novelist and story-teller, dies of a strange disease!
An aging R. M. BallantyneAttempting to find a cure for his mysterious ailment, now known as Meniere's Disease, R. M. Ballantyne traveled to Rome. Here he spent many months with his daughter, Jane, but to no avail. On February 8, 1894, he succumbed and breathed his last breath, 164 years ago today.
What was the disease that prostrated this literary giant? Well, Meniere's Disease is a rather mysterious illness which affects the fluid of the inner ear. An imbalance of fluids in these regions causes the rupture of a thin membrane, mixing two incompatible liquids. Common symptoms are extreme vertigo, dizziness, and hearing loss.
The contributing factors are still undiscovered by the medical field, but today, treatment can be attempted with reasonable assurance of success. In the 1800's, however, no cure had as yet been discovered, and for this cause R. M. Ballantyne died.
I am not medically inclined, to say the least, so to get a better sense of the disease I would recommend reading this article, from the University of Minnesota.
Robert Louis Stevenson contributed to the monument.Thousands of grieving children across Britain immediately began a subscription to erect a suitable monument at his grave. Six hundred pounds were collected, mostly made up of small contributions from school children. Robert Louis Stevenson, who was a part of the representative committee for the subscription, advised in an open letter to spend but a small amount on the actual memorial, giving the rest to Ballantyne's widow and family. His advice was carried out, and only forty pounds were spent on a simple but tasteful monument, which was inscribed as follows:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF ROBERT MICHAEL BALLANTYNE, THE BOYS' STORY WRITER. Born at Edinburgh, April 24th, 1825--Died at Rome, February 8th, 1894. THIS STONE IS ERECTED BY FOUR GENERATIONS OF GRATEFUL FRIENDS IN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND
R. M. Ballantyne was buried in the Cimitero protestante also known as the Protestant Cemetery of Rome. This cemetery was formed by the Roman Catholic powers in the 1700's. No "heretics," or Protestants, could be buried in Catholic "holy ground," but there bodies could also not be left to rot. Hence a separate burial ground, in which large numbers of traveling dignitaries, writers, philosophers, sculptors, painters, and representatives of many more distinguished trades have been buried here over the centuries.
Ballantyne's grave is close to the plots of English poets John Keats and Percy Shelley.
The English newspaper The Times gave this obituary of R. M. Ballantyne.
OBITUARY
Mr. Robert M. Ballantyne, the prolific and excellent writer of tales for boys, whose death we announced yesterday, was connected with the well-known family of the Ballantynes, Sir Author:Walter Scott's printers. He was born in Edinburgh in 1825. When a lad of 16 he went out to Canada, and spent six years there in service of the Hudson Bay Company. Having returned to Scotland in 1847, he published in the following year his first book, entitled "Hudson Bay, or Everyday Life in the Wilds of North America." In this he embodied the substance of his letters to his mother and of his journals written on the spot. He spent some time in the printing office of Messrs. Constable in Edinburgh, but he did not take kindly to the desk after his free and roving life in the West. At the same time his literary proclivities were asserting themselves strongly, and about the year 1856 he gave up business and adopted literature as his profession. Then began that series of adventure tales written about and for boys and girls which have brightened the loves of several generations of young folks, and which seemed ever fresh and never-failing in interest. "The Coral Island," "The World of Ice," "The Young Fur Traders," "Ungava," "The Dog Crusoe," and many more followed one another in quick succession. Every Christmas I saw at least one new story from his busy pen. For the material of several of his earlier stories he reverted to his Canadian experiences. He made it a rule, indeed, to write always, when he could, from his own experiences. Before he wrote "The Lighthouse" he lived for some time with the keepers on the Bell Rock. He prepared for "Deep Down" by a visit to the Cornish mines, for the "The Pirate City" by a winter in Algiers, and so in other cases. This method of preparation gave a realistic character to his work and a graphic force to his descriptions. There was a great deal of human nature in his creations, and all his books are pervaded by a sound and healthy tone which loses nothing from the vein of humour that runs through most of them. Down to 1887 Mr. Ballantyne had written 74 volumes containing 62 separate stories. He was also a clever artist, and often exhibited water-colours in the Royal Scottish Academy, for many years past he had resided at Harrow. A short time ago he fell into bad health, the result of overwork, and he had gone to Italy in search of relief and rest. He died in Rome.
And that was 164 years ago, today.
Tutela ex Vulnero,
John
Quote of the Week
February 02, 2010
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. ~Teddy Roosevelt
Tutela ex Vulnero,
John
| A Project of Vision Forum, Inc. © 2008 |