History

Our Henley is inspired by the real William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), who was a nineteenth-century poet, journalist, and editor. He’s most famous for his 1875 poem “Invictus” (1875), which ends with the lines “I am the master of my fate; / I am the captain of my soul”. Henley was himself an amputee and a close friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island in 1881. Stevenson’s famous amputee pirate Long John Silver is potentially partially inspired by Henley.

Backstory

A poet whose leg was amputated at sixteen following complications arising from tuberculosis.
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