Bronze memorial relief, 7 feet 7 inches x 9 feet 1 inch
(2.31 x 2.77 m.), St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial, 1899-1903

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, and poet. In 1887, Stevenson posed for Saint-Gaudens in New York and Manasquan, New Jersey. The bronze memorial, in the Cathedral of St. Giles in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a variation of the 1887 relief portrait. The early design had Stevenson in bed, holding a sheaf of papers in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Several versions later, the memorial has Stevenson seated on a couch, covered by a traveling rug, holding a quill pen.  The first two versions of the Stevenson portrait contain three couplets from a poem by the writer: "Youth now flees on feathered foot…"