Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes and, The amateur emigrant

__Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes__ recounts Robert Louis Stevenson's 120 mile, 12 day hike, accompanied only by his stubborn and unwieldy donkey, through the Cévennes of south-central France. A pioneering piece of outdoor literature, it is one of Stevenson's earliest works, and one of the earliest accounts of hiking and camping for recreation rather than necessity. Stevenson's route is still popular today; recently when asked why the Scotsman still informs the identity of the Cevennes, a politician and historian of the area remarked "Because he showed us the landscape that makes us who we are." In 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson was suffering from poor health, struggling to survive on the income derived from his writings, and tormented by his infatuation with Fanny Osbourne, a married American woman. His response was to embark on journeys through Cévennes and America where he wrote 'Travels With a Donkey' and 'The Amateur Emigrant'