Memoir Of Fleeming Jenkin Records Of A Family Of Engineers

Fleeming Jenkin, noted for his work in engineering and applied electricity, was one of R. L. S.'s closest friends in his early days. When Jenkin, then thirty-five, became Professor of Engineering in Edinburgh University, Stevenson, much against all his inclinations, was professedly studying to qualify himself for his father's calling. The Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin, which Stevenson wrote on his friend's death in 1885, was undertaken at Bournemouth with the assistance of Mrs. Jenkin. It is the only biographical work which Stevenson completed, and rather curiously is said to be the book which his wife thought the most successful of his writings.

Robert Louis Stevenson authored a biography of Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, a man of many talents who served as Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Jenkin was known as the inventor of the cable car or telpherage and was also an electrician, cable engineer, economist, lecturer, linguist, critic, actor, dramatist, and artist. His descendants include Charles Frewen Jenkin, a notable engineer, and Conservative MPs Patrick, Lord Jenkin of Roding, and Bernard Jenkin. Stevenson's biography sheds light on the life and achievements of this remarkable and versatile man.