We Wish You a Merry Birthday
And a happy cake eat.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today’s fact is truly a gift.
Robert Louis Stevenson gifted his birthday to the daughter of a friend who was unhappy with her Christmas birthday.
Robert Louis Stevenson authored several famous works during his lifetime, including Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.
These books have all received critical acclaim over the years, and Stevenson is one of the most translated authors ever. But there’s one bit of writing that’s a bit less well-known.
In 1891, Stevenson was chatting with his friend Henry Clay Ide, the Presidential Commissioner to Samoa and later a U.S. judge. Ide confided that his daughter Annie was sad about having her birthday on Christmas Day.
It’s an understandable woe; sharing a birthday with a holiday is tough. You only get one birthday per year, and Annie had to watch while a bunch of other people celebrated something different? What a raw deal!
Stevenson decided he would give Annie a present that wouldn’t fit under the Christmas tree. He drew up a formal deed, with a witness and seal and everything, legally gifting his birthday of November 13 to Annie.
Annie was tickled, and the Stevenson and Ide families remained good friends for quite some time. Stevenson died in 1894, but Annie lived until early 1945. That means she got to celebrate 53 birthdays on non-Christmas Days.
You can read Stevenson’s entire note here. It’s a good reminder that even if we’re not giving away our birthdays, we can still be kind to one another.