The R.L. Stevenson Originals

by E.B. Simpson

Front Cover/Spine:

This book is a real treasure. The book contains 31 tissue covered illustrations, mainly in the form of tipped in photographs and paintings. The remainder are facsimiles of some old letters. This “First Edition” book was published in 1913 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. The book measures 5 ˝ inches by 8 Ľ inches and contains 213 pages. The title is in gilt on the front cover and down the spine. The brown buckram cover shows minor signs of wear to the edges, corners and to the top and bottom of the spine. There is some fraying to the edge of the front hinge which appears to have been repaired at some point. The spine is tight and the hinges are strong. The pages are printed on good quality paper and show no signs of rips or foxing. The pages have aged to attain a creamy patina and the tissues are a bit discolored. The top edges of the pages are gilt and the remaining edges are deckled. Exceptions noted, the overall condition of this wonderful 89 year old book is good.

Title Page - Verso

Contents:

The Golden Age
Memories an Portraits
Comrades and Canoes
Drama and Doubles
Over the Hills and Far Away
South Seas and the Magnetic North
Hills of Home

Frontispiece – Oval “tipped in” portrait

R.L.S.
From a painting by Count Nerli. By kind permission of the Honourable Lord Guthrie.

Excerpt - Preface:
Though R.L.S. left no lengthy autobiography, throughout all his works are legible signposts which point to his routes through life. They show what pegs he hung his fanciful thoughts on, from what source he drew his characters in fiction. To those who have written of him I am deeply indebted. To Sir Arthur Pinero for his lecture on R.L.S. as a dramatist, which he afterwards privately printed, and has kindly allowed me to quote. I have to thank the editor of Chambers’s Journal for granting leave to quote from articles he published in his magazine giving glimpses of the author’s boyish days and of his mother’s home. Mr Will Low, in his Chronicle of Friendships, draws for us pictures of the two cousin Stevensons in their Fontainebleau days when they lived with Loudon Dodd and his artist friends. Mrs Thomas Stevenson’s letters from Saranac, and on the subsequent cruise, tell much of her son and his sea travels; and Vailima Table Talk, by his stepdaughter, furnishes us with facts as to his mode of work when she was his amanuensis. The Appin murder trial, which formed the basis of two modern novels besides Kidnapped and Catriona, is set forth in Notable Trials, ably edited by David N. Mackay. It tells us, without the embroidery of fiction, of the shooting of Campbell of Glenure, the condemnation and execution of James Steqart, and much about Alan Breck, one of R.L.S.’s truest originals. To Lord Guthrie, Louis Stevenson’s fellow-student during their legal studies, the publisher and myself are much deeply indebted. He lives for a considerable part of the year at the Stevensons’ old summer home, Swanston Cottage, and there has with persevering care collected portraits and relics of the author he knew and loved. He generously made us welcome to use his museum, for, with the public spirit, he wished all to enjoy what has been his pleasure and pastime to acquire.

Eve Blantyre Simpson
End excerpt