‘Frail Warrior’: Stevenson as Manly Invalid at Saranac Lake

Abstract

Although “frail warrior” appears a contradiction in terms, the epithet captures how Robert Louis Stevenson’s admirers sought to reconcile a late-nineteenth-century ideal of physical manliness with the reality of the adventure writer’s debilitating illness. This construction of the writer’s public image is evident in accounts of his stay at the Saranac Lake, NY, tuberculosis sanatorium during the frigid winter of 1887–1888. The institution’s distinctive wilderness setting for medical treatment enabled a heroic model of disabled masculinity, one that is framed by American national identity. This archetype informs the author’s posthumous reputation and shows how gender and nationality shape metaphoric thinking about illness and authorship.