Robert Louis Stevenson | Page 3

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Robert Louis Stevenson, A Record, An Estimate, A Memorial by A.H.
Japp Scanned and proofed by David Price, email
[email protected]

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, BY A. H. JAPP

PREFACE

A FEW words may here be allowed me to explain one or two points.
First, about the facsimile of last page of Preface to FAMILIAR
STUDIES OF MEN AND BOOKS. Stevenson was in Davos when the
greater portion of that work went through the press. He felt so much the
disadvantage of being there in the circumstances (both himself and his
wife ill) that he begged me to read the proofs of the Preface for him.
This illness has record in the letter from him (pp. 28- 29). The printers,
of course, had directions to send the copy and proofs of the Preface to
me. Hence I am able now to give this facsimile.
With regard to the letter at p. 19, of which facsimile is also given, what
Stevenson there meant is not the "three last" of that batch, but the three
last sent to me before - though that was an error on his part - he only
then sent two chapters, making the "eleven chapters now" - sent to me
by post.
Another point on which I might have dwelt and illustrated by many
instances is this, that though Stevenson was fond of hob-nobbing with

all sorts and conditions of men, this desire of wide contact and
intercourse has little show in his novels - the ordinary fibre of
commonplace human beings not receiving much celebration from him
there; another case in which his private bent and sympathies received
little illustration in his novels. But the fact lies implicit in much I have
written.
I have to thank many authors for permission to quote extracts I have
used.
ALEXANDER H. JAPP.

CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS II. TREASURE
ISLAND AND SOME REMINISCENCES III. THE CHILD FATHER
OF THE MAN IV. HEREDITY ILLUSTRATED V. TRAVELS VI.
SOME EARLIER LETTERS VII. THE VAILIMA LETTERS VIII.
WORK OF LATER YEARS IX. SOME CHARACTERISTICS X. A
SAMOAN MEMORIAL OF R. L. STEVENSON XI. MISS STUBBS'
RECORD OF A PILGRIMAGE XII. HIS GENIUS AND METHODS
XIII. PREACHER AND MYSTIC FABULIST XIV. STEVENSON
AS DRAMATIST XV. THEORY OF GOOD AND EVIL XVI.
STEVENSON'S GLOOM XVII. PROOFS OF GROWTH XVIII.
EARLIER DETERMINATIONS AND RESULTS XIX. MR
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN'S ESTIMATE XX. EGOTISTIC
ELEMENT AND ITS EFFECTS XXI. UNITY IN STEVENSON'S
STORIES XXII. PERSONAL CHEERFULNESS AND INVENTED
GLOOM XXIII. EDINBURGH REVIEWERS' DICTA
INAPPLICABLE TO LATER WORK XXIV. MR HENLEY'S
SPITEFUL PERVERSIONS XXV. MR CHRISTIE MURRAY'S
IMPRESSIONS XXVI. HERO-VILLAINS XXVII. MR G. MOORE,
MR MARRIOTT WATSON, AND OTHERS XXVIII.
UNEXPECTED COMBINATIONS XXIX. LOVE OF VAGABONDS
XXX. LORD ROSEBERY'S CASE XXXI. MR GOSSE AND MS. OF
TREASURE ISLAND XXXII. STEVENSON PORTRAITS XXXIII.
LAPSES AND ERRORS IN CRITICISM XXXIV. LETTERS AND
POEMS IN TESTIMONY APPENDIX

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

CHAPTER I
- INTRODUCTION AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

MY little effort to make Thoreau better known in England had one
result that I am pleased to think of. It brought me into personal
association with R. L. Stevenson, who had written and published in
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE an essay on Thoreau, in whom he had
for some time taken an interest. He found in Thoreau not only a rare
character for originality, courage, and indefatigable independence, but
also a master of style, to whom, on this account, as much as any, he
was inclined to play the part of the "sedulous ape," as he had
acknowledged doing to many others - a later exercise, perhaps in some
ways as fruitful as any that had gone before. A recent poet, having had
some seeds of plants sent to him from Northern Scotland to the South,
celebrated his setting of them beside those native to the Surrey slope on
which he dwelt, with the lines -
"And when the Northern seeds are growing, Another beauty then
bestowing, We shall be fine, and North to South Be giving kisses,
mouth to mouth."
So the Thoreau influence on Stevenson was as