Austin Strong   Playwright,
Artist, Seaman

WILLIAM B. LIEBMANN

^^The time has come^^ the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—
Of cabbages—and kings."

Carroll—Through the Looking Glass.

\OME years ago Austin Strong gave a group of radio talks
on various subjects and called the series "Cabbages and
Kings." It was a most fitting title as the programs encom¬
passed many things, a number of which presented a kaleidoscope
of his life which was one of world-wide interest in everything in¬
cluding ships and kings.

He was the step-grandson of Robert Louis Stevenson. He was
born in San Francisco on January i8, 1881, but spent his early
years in Hawaii and in Samoa, where he was the only child in the
Stevenson household at Vailima. The youngster whose copy of
The Child's Garden of Verses was inscribed:

". .. Now, little Austin, doff your hat,
For what a grandpapa was that!"

was given his early lessons in history and French by this most un¬
usual teacher. Stevenson, who was called "Uncle Louis" by his
grandson, was an enthusiastic preceptor acting out the role of a
Scottish chief or a French general much to the amusement of the
rest of the family who would peek into the classroom. Austin
Strong, on writing about this many years later, stated that from
the beginning R.L.S. always treated him like an equal and never
as a child and immediately gave him a feeling of love and trust
and "was warm and comforting like the sound of a wood fire on
the hearth."

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