A Little Book of 'Go, little book, and wish to all Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, A bin of wine, a spice of wit, A house with lawns enclosing it, A living river by the door, A nightingale in the sycamore!" CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Publishers V\(ew York Qity .3* COPYRIGHT, I92O by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS OCT | 6 |920©GI.A601096 "Behind the Scenes Ivz'th STEVENSON An the romantic history of Stevenson's life nothing is more delightful than the story of how he came to write some of the books that have made him great. Before he had become a famous author he was very fond of staying at a little town in France in the Forest of Fontainebleau, where there was a colony of artists. Here he met a Mrs. Osbourne, an American lady who was study- ing painting, and the two spent many delightful hours to- gether. But, at last, the lady with her two children, a boy and a girl, returned to her home in California. After lingering in Paris some six months Stevenson made his famous excursion to Monastier, which he describes in "Travels with a Donkey," and returned to Scotland; but he did not forget the woman who was "Trusty, dusky, vivid, true, With eyes of gold and bramble-dew." In fact, to his cousin, R. A. M. Stevenson, who had been at Fontainebleau and knew her, he wrote about "Travels with a Donkey": "Lots of it is mere protestation to F. (Mrs. Osbourne). This to me is the main thread of inter- est." So it is not surprising that he determined to follow her to America. [5] Stevenson came of a fine old Scotch family in com- fortable circumstances, but in spite of the fact that he was really too ill to try to make his own living by writing, he was too proud to ask his father for money, and he decided to go to America in the steerage and to cross the United States on an emigrant train. This trip, through its hard- ships, very nearly caused his death, but it gave to the world two fascinating books, for he describes, as only Ste- venson can, his companions and experiences on shipboard and travelling to California in "The Amateur Emigrant" and "Across the Plains." How he finally married Fanny Osbourne in California, and how her tender care kept him alive fourteen years, during which he wrote the books that were to make him immortal, is one of the most beautiful stories in the world of literature. From the very first he became fast friends with his stepson, Lloyd. Mrs. Sanchez, in her recent biography of her sister, "The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson," has told of the happy times together in those early days in California : "For the long evenings of winter we had a game which Louis invented expressly for our amusement. Lloyd Os- bourne, then a boy of twelve, had rather more than the usual boy's fondness for stories of the sea. It will be remembered that it was to please this boy that Mr. Stevenson afterward wrote ' Treasure Island.' Our game was to tell a continued story, each person being limited to two minutes, taking up the tale at the point where the one before him left off. We [*] older ones had a secret understanding that we were to keep Lloyd away from the sea, but strive as we might, even though we left the hero stranded in the middle of the Desert of Sahara, Lloyd never failed to have him sailing the bounding main again before his allotted two minutes ex- pired." 'Treasure Island After a time Stevenson was able to take his family back to Europe, and once when they were staying at Braemar, in the highlands of Scotland, Lloyd Osbourne came home from school for a holiday. Of this momentous visit Ste- venson says: "He had no thought of literature; it was the art of Raphael that received his fleeting suffrages, and with the aid of pen and ink and a shilling box of water-colours, he had soon turned one of the rooms into a picture-gallery. My more immediate duty toward the gallery was to be showman; but I would sometimes unbend a little, join the artist (so to speak) at the easel, and pass the afternoon with him in a generous emulation, making coloured draw- ings. On one of these occasions I made the map of an island; it was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully col- oured; the shape of it took my fancy beyond expression; it contained harbours that pleased me like sonnets; and with the unconsciousness of the predestined, I ticketed my performance 'Treasure Island.' . . . "No child but must remember laying his head in the [7] grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest, and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies. Somewhat in this way, as I pored upon my map of 'Treasure Island,' the future characters of the book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods; and their brown faces and bright weapons peeped out upon me from unexpected quarters, as they passed to and fro, fighting, and hunting treasure, on these few square inches of a flat projection. The next thing I knew I had some paper before me, and was writing out a list of chapters. How often have I done so, and the thing gone no farther ! But there seemed elements of success about this enterprise. It was to be a story for boys; no need of psychology or fine writing; and I had a boy at hand to be a touchstone. Women were excluded. (That was Lloyd's stipulation.) "On a chill September morning, by the cheek of a brisk fire, and the rain drumming on the window, I began the 'Sea Cook,' for that was the original title. . . . Day by day, after lunch, I read aloud my morning's work to the family. "I had counted on one boy; I found I had two in my audience. My father caught fire at once, with all the romance and childishness of his original nature. His own stories, that every night of his life he put himself to sleep with, dealt perpetually with ships, roadside inns, robbers, old sailors, and commercial travellers before the era of steam. He never finished one of these romances: the lucky man did not require to ! But in ' Treasure Island ' he recognized something kindred to his own imagination; [*] it was his kind of picturesque; and he not only heard with delight the daily chapter, but set himself actively to col- laborate. When the time came for Billy Bones's chest to be ransacked, he must have passed the better part of a day preparing, on the back of a legal envelope, an inven- tory of its contents, which I exactly followed ; and the name of 'Flint's old ship,' the Walrus, was given at his particular request." And so during the winter "Treasure Island" was fin- ished. The story was published in a little English maga- zine called Young Folks. Stevenson received for it the miserable price of £2 s.io a page (forty-five hundred words to the page). It appeared under the name of Captain George North, for Stevenson did not wish to injure his reputation as a writer of serious essays. Nearly two years elapsed before this yarn of buccaneers and pirates became one of the most popular of boys' books, and an amusing and almost unbelievable fact is that the editors of Young Folks received more than one indignant letter from readers for printing such a tale. T)r. Jekyll and ^ffr. Hyde After spending several winters at Davos Platz, in Swit- zerland, Stevenson's father gave him a house in the south of England, at Bournemouth. It was here that he wrote one of the most famous of all his stories, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." His cousin, Graham Bal- four, details the circumstances of the writing of this tale, in his official "Life of Stevenson": "A subject much in his thoughts at this time was the duality of man's nature, and the alternation of good and evil; and he was for a long while casting about for a story to embody this central idea. Out of this frame of mind had come the sombre imagination of 'Markheim,' but that was not what he required. The true story still delayed, till suddenly one night he had a dream. He awoke, and found himself in possession of two, or rather three, of the scenes in the 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.' " Its waking existence, however, was by no means with- out incident. He dreamed these scenes in considerable detail, including the circumstance of the transforming powders, and so vivid was the impression that he wrote the story off at a red heat, just as it had presented itself to him in his sleep. " ' In the small hours of one morning,' says Mrs. Steven- son, ' I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Think- ing he had a nightmare, I awakened him. He said angrily: "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale." I had awakened him at the first transformation scene.' "Mr. Osbourne writes : 'I don't believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of "Dr. Jekyll." I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Louis came down-stairs in a fever ; read nearly half the book aloud ; and then, while we were still gasping, [70] he was away again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first draft took so long as three days.' " He had lately had a hemorrhage, and was strictly for- bidden all discussion or excitement. No doubt the read- ing aloud was contrary to the doctor's orders; at any rate Mrs. Stevenson, according to the custom then in force, wrote her detailed criticism of the story as it then stood, pointing out her chief objection — that it was really an allegory, whereas he had treated it purely as if it were a story. In the first draft Jekyll's nature was bad all through, and the Hyde change was worked only for the sake of a disguise. She gave the paper to her husband and left the room. After a while his bell rang; on her return she found him sitting up in bed (the clinical thermometer in his mouth), pointing with a long denunciatory finger to a pile of ashes. He had burned the entire draft. Having realized that he had taken the wrong point of view, that the tale was an allegory and not another 'Markheim,' he at once destroyed his manuscript, acting not out of pique, but from a fear that he might be tempted to make too much use of it, and not rewrite the whole from a new standpoint. It was written again in three days." In his extraordinary essay, "A Chapter on Dreams," Stevenson has told of the strange stories he saw "acted out" in that small theatre of the brain which we keep brightly lighted all night long. Often the jets are down and the darkness and sleep reign undisturbed in the re- mainder of the body — and in his own words he tells how Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him. ["] Editions ^/Stevenson's Works THE BIOGRAPHICAL EDITION With introductions written especially for this edition by Mrs. Stevenson, and describing the circumstances under which the books were written. 31 volumes. Bound in cloth and in limp leather. NOVELS AND ROMANCES Treasure Island. With Map Prince Otto Kidnapped. Being the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751. With Map David Balfour. A Sequel to Kidnapped. Being Memoirs of His Adventures at Home and Abroad • The Master of Ballantrae. A Winter's Tale The Wrecker. With Lloyd Osbourne The Black Arrow. A Tale of the Two Roses The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and Quartette. With Lloyd Osbourne St. Ives. Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England The Wrong Box. With Lloyd Osbourne Weir of Hermiston. Containing also The Misadventures of John Nicholson, The Story of a Lie, and The Body-Snatcher SHORTER STORIES New Arabian Nights The Suicide Club — The Rajah's Diamond — The Pavilion on the Links — A Lodging for the Night — The Sire De Male- troit's Door — Providence and the Guitar The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables Will o' the Mill— Markheim— Thrawn Janet— Olalla— The Treasure of Franchard. Containing also The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Dynamiter. More New Arabian Nights The Squire of Dames — Story of the Destroying Angel — The Superfluous Mansion — Narrative of the Spirited Old Lady — Zero's Tale of the Explosive Bomb — The Brown Box — Story of the Fair Cuban [»] Island Nights' Entertainments The Beach of Falesa. Being the Narrative of a South-Sea Trader — The Bottle Imp — The Isle of Voices ESSAYS, TRAVELS, AND SKETCHES An Inland Voyage Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes vlrginibus puerisque and other papers Crabbed Age and Youth — An Apology for Idlers — Ordered South — ^Es Triplex — El Dorado — The English Admirals — Some Portraits by Raeburn — Child's Play — Walking Tours — Pan's Pipes — A Plea for Gas Lamps Familiar Studies of Men and Books Victor Hugo's Romances — Some Aspects of Robert Burns — Walt Whitman — Henry David Thoreau: His Character and Opinions — Yoshida-Torajiro — Francois Villon, Student, Poet and Housebreaker — Charles of Orleans — Samuel Pepys — John Knox and His Relations to Women Memories and Portraits The Foreigner at Home — Some College Memories — Old Mor- tality — A College Magazine — An Old Scotch Gardener — Pas- toral — The Manse — Memoirs of an Islet — Thomas Stevenson — Talk and Talkers: First Paper — Talk and Talkers: Second Paper — The Character of Dogs — "A Penny Plain and Two- pence Coloured" — A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas's — A Gos- sip on Romance — A Humble Remonstrance In the South Seas Being an Account of Experiences and Observations in the Marquesas, Paumotus and Gilbert Islands in the Course of two Cruises on the Yacht "Casco" (1888) and the Schooner "Equator" (1889). With Map The Amateur Emigrant and The Silverado Squatters Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays The Old Pacific Capital — Fontainebleau — Random Memories — The Lantern-Bearers — A Chapter on Dreams — Beggars — Letter to a Young Gentleman — Pulvis et Umbra — A Christ- mas Sermon Lay Morals and Other Papers Father Damien — The Pentland Rising — College Papers — Criticisms — Sketches — The Great North Road — The Young Chevalier — Heathercat Essays of Travel and in the Art of Writing Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes — Cockermouth and Keswick — Roads — On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places — An Au- tumn Effect — A Winter's Walk in Garrick and Galloway — Forest Notes — A Mountain Town in France — Random Mem- ories: "Rosa Quo Locorum" — The Ideal House — Health and Mountains — Davos in Winter — Alpine Diversions — The Stimulation of the Alps — On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature — A Note on Realism — The Morality of the Profession of Letters — The Day After To-morrow — Books which Have Influenced Me — The Genesis of "The Master of Ballantrae" POEMS Complete Poems A Child's Garden of Verses — Underwoods — Ballads The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson to His Family and Friends. Selected and Edited, with notes and introduction, by Sidney Colvin. 4 volumes The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Abridged Edition in one volume. By Graham Balfour SUBSCRIPTION EDITION [ sold only in sets] THE THISTLE EDITION Twenty-five volumes, printed on special rough-edged paper, and attractively bound. Each volume contains a rotogravure frontis- piece and in addition there are eighty illustrations throughout the set. Among the artists represented are: Howard Pyle, Will Low, William Hole, W. H. Hyde, E. H. Blashfield, J. Alden Weir, Walter Crane, Alfred Brennan, B. W. Clinedinst, and others. There are also several portraits of Mr. Stevenson, taken at different times. RICHLY ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS The famous Wyeth illustrated volumes Treasure Island With 14 full-page illustrations in color by N. C. Wyeth, and with decorative cover and lining. With Map Kidnapped: Being the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 With 14 full-page illustrations in color by N. C. Wyeth, and with decorative cover and lining. With Map The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses With 14 full-page illustrations in color by N. C. Wyeth, and with decorative cover and lining Miss Jessie Willcox Smith's Child's Garden Pictures A Child's Garden of Verses With 12 full-page illustrations in color by Jessie Willcox Smith and many sketches in black-and-white; decorative cover and lining OTHER ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS Treasure Island With illustrations in color and in black-and-white by George Varian. WithMap Edition with illustrations by Walter Paget. With Map Edition with illustrations in color and others in black-and-white. Scribner Series for Young People. With Map Kidnapped: Being the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 With 4 illustrations in color. Scribner Series for Young People A Child's Garden of Verses With 8 full-page illustrations in color and over fifty others in black-and- white by Florence Storer Edition profusely illustrated in pen-and-ink by Charles Robinson An Inland Voyage. With 12 full-page illustrations The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson By Graham Balfour. With portraits. 2 volumes The POCKET R. L. S. Being Favorite Passages from the Works of Stevenson A Book of R. L. S. Works, Travels, Friends, and Commentators By George H. Brown. With many full-page illustrations Learning to Write: Suggestions and Counsel from Robert LOUIS STEVENSON. Selected and Edited by John William Rogers, Jr. "A Christmas Sermon" "Als Triplex" and "Fables" are published separately in attractive small form. i'Si LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 433 641