15. Robert Louis Stevenson willed away his birthday
Robert Louis Stevenson was a prolific writer who gave the world many indelible characters, including Long John Silver from Treasure Island, the epitome of the wooden-legged, eyepatch wearing, parrot bearing pirate. He also created Mr. Hyde, the frightening and violent other side of gentleman Dr. Jekyll. He wrote short stories and poems, travelogues, and political discourses. His health throughout his life was bad, plagued by tuberculosis which caused him to seek a place where he could recover his strength and continue his work. Despite his constant traveling and often short residences he made many lifelong friends with whom he corresponded regularly, adding to his voluminous pile of written material accumulated during his relatively short life.
Among them was Annie Ide, who often lamented to Stevenson of her misfortune at having been born on Christmas Day. Annie found the date inconvenient in that it was impossible for her to properly celebrate her birthday since everyone was instead in the process of observing Christmas. When Stevenson died, his will revealed that he had bequeathed to his friend his own birthday – November 13 – bestowing upon her “all rights and privileges in the thirteenth day of November”. Stevenson noted that the date had formerly been his birthday and was now hers, to “…have, hold, and enjoy the same in the customary manner…” There is no evidence to indicate that Annie accepted the bequest from the author, who died in 1894 at the age of 44.
