This edition highlights the epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson's ancestors and the building of the lighthouses on the coasts of Scotland, accomplished under daunting conditions.

"Whenever I smell the sea air, I know I'm not far from one of my ancestors' works," Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in 1880. "When the lighthouses light up at sunset along the coasts of Scotland, I feel proud to think they burn brighter thanks to my father's genius!"

Robert Louis Stevenson was the most famous of the Stevensons, but by no means the most prolific. The Lighthouse Stevensons, all four generations of them, built every lighthouse around Scotland, were responsible for a series of inventions in construction and optics, and achieved remarkable feats of engineering under conditions that would be prohibitive even today. The very persistence that Robert Louis Stevenson put into writing, his ancestors applied to illuminating the darkness of the seas. The Lighthouse Stevensons is a story of high endeavor, beautifully told. Indeed, this is one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory.

Pages: 320, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm