Memoir Of Fleeming Jenkin

Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin Robert Louis Stevenson

On the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determined to publish a selection of his various papers; by way of introduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole, forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. In the States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce the whole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matter which was at once its occasion and its justification, so large an account of a man so little known may seem to a stranger out of all proportion. But Jenkin was a man much more remarkable than the mere bulk or merit of his work approves him.

In Memoir, RLS discusses Jenkin's family ancestry in detail, outlining their careers. He then tells the story of Jenkin's life - his birth, early childhood, studenthood, marriage, and his accession to Chair at Edinburgh University. Stevenson also focuses on Jenkin's professional triumphs, including his invention of telpherage (a system of using electricity to transport vehicles or goods).