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Stevensoniana




[Illustration: Robert Louis Stevenson]




  Stevensoniana


  BEING A REPRINT OF
  VARIOUS LITERARY AND
  PICTORIAL MISCELLANY
  ASSOCIATED WITH
  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
  THE MAN AND HIS WORK


  The Bankside Press
  M. F. MANSFIELD, 14 WEST 22ND STREET, NEW YORK



  Copyright
  1900
  M. F. Mansfield




_Contents_


  Biographical                                 3
      Scotland
      London
      The Riviera
      The Golden Gate
      The South Seas

  Apparition                                  16

  Stevenson's First Book                      17

  Books Which Have Influenced Me              19

  A Stevenson Letter                          33

  A Justification                             33

  The Davos Platz Books                       40

  Stevenson's Later Letters                   44

  A Stevenson Shrine                          49

  Stevenson and Hazlitt                       55

  On Beranger                                 57

  Stevenson of the Letters                    61

  Apropos Vailima Letters                     62

  A Visit to Stevenson's Pacific Isle         65

  A Pen Portrait                              76

  Appreciation and Homage                     78

  R. L. S. and Music                          81




_Illustrations_


  Frontispiece Portrait. From Etching by Hollyer

  Facsimile Title Page
      Travels With a Donkey }                 17
      An Inland Voyage      }                 17

  Facsimile Title Page
      Not I                 }                 40
      Black Canyon          }                 40

  Facsimile Title Page
      A Pentland Rising                       49

  Facsimile Title Page
      A New Form of Intermittent Light        64




_Stevensoniana_




_By Way of Introduction_


The early days of the literary career of Robert Louis Stevenson can hardly
be said to have been entirely devoid of recognition, though it would
appear doubtful if the world at large was willing to recognize his
abilities had it not been for his wonderful personality; with a soul and
an imagination far above those of his early associates he gradually drew
around him the respect and admiration of that larger world of letters, the
London coterie. The following biographical notes are to be considered then
as a mere resume of the various chronological periods and stages of his
career as is shown by the many facts which have already become the common
property of the latter day reader, but which by reason of the scattered
source of supply and the extreme unlikelyhood of their being included in
any authoritative life or biography, makes them at once interesting and
valuable.

As sponsor for the abilities of Robert Louis Stevenson, stands first and
foremost, the name of William Ernest Henley a belief which was latterly
endorsed by most literary critics from Gladstone to LeGallienne.




Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Howard Place, Edinburgh, on the
13th of November, 1850. From his eighteenth year he seldom, if ever,
signed himself aught but Robert Louis Stevenson, omitting the name Balfour
therefrom. From birth he was of a slight and excitable nature and suffered
keenly from chronic and frequent illness. His recognized literary labors
may be said to have commenced at the immature age of six when, it is
recalled, he wrote, presumably for his own amusement and that of his
immediate family, "A History of Moses," and some years later an account of
his "Travels in Perth."

In these early years there also took shape and form in his imagination
what was afterwards given forth to the world in the pages of "Treasure
Island."

At eight, Stevenson was at school, and at eleven entered the Academy of
his native city. Here he began his first real literary labors, publishing,
editing and even writing and illustrating the contents of a small school
periodical.

Stevenson was emphatically a bird of passage, for regardless of the ties
of kindred and sentiment he was ever on the wing, and when in after years
as a seeker after health he proved none the less a careful observer than
he had been in his schoolboy days, small wonder it is that he was able to
give to the reading world such charming and novel descriptions of things
seen.

In his schooldays he journeyed far into the country round about, the
inevitable outcome of which was for him to ultimately to write out in his
own picturesque and imaginative words a record of his observations. From
"Random Memories" we learn of his pleasure at having taken a journey in
company with his father around among the lighthouses of the Scottish
coast, "_the first in the complete character of a man, without the help of
petticoats_." And