Ashley MS A1775-7,A1779,B1780-1,A1783-4,A1786-7,1788,A1790,B1792-5,A1796,B1800,B4306,B4307,B4310,5055-6

Letters (31) from Robert Louis Stevenson to Edmund Gosse; 16 April 1879-1 Dec. 1894. A1775, 1776, A1779, 1788, A1790, B1794, B1795, A1796, B1800, B4307, B4310 and 5055, letters II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, have envelopes. Stevenson and Gosse probably met in 1873 or 1874, and remained on intimate terms until the end of Stevenson's life - indeed, the last letter in this collection (5055, ff. 28-31, of which ff. 28b, 29b-30b are in the hand of his step-daughter, Mrs Isobel Strong) was written only two days before his death, in order to thank Gosse for his dedication of In Russet and Silver, 1894, to 'Tusitala'. In the letters Stevenson discusses his work and his plans, and frequently gives expression to his views on life and on writing. Among the periods and subjects covered are the last months before Stevenson left for California in early August 1879 (5055, ff. 1-2b, 1776, A1796), and his life and hardships there during the winter of 1879/1880 (5055, ff. 3-5, B1780, B1800, A1790), the summer of 1881, spent in Pitlochry and Braemar, at which time Stevenson applied unsuccessfully for the chair of History and Constitutional Law at Edinburgh University (B1781, B1793), the winter of 1881/1882, spent in Davos, during which 'Treasure Island' was completed, the first part of 'Talk and Talkers' published, a Life of Hazlitt projected but abandoned, and a great deal of amusement gained from his stepson's toy printing-press (A1787, A1783, B1781, A1786, A1779, A1784), the early summer of 1882, spent at Stobo Manse in Peebles, at which time Gosse had just published his life of Gray, in the 'English Men of Letters' series (B4306, Bl792), and the spring and autumn of 1883, during Stevenson's residence at Hyères, and in particular his attempts to secure the publication of 'The Silverado Squatters' (5055, ff. 6-8, 1788, A1775). Subjects contained in the letters written during the years that Stevenson lived at Bournemouth include Gosse's edition of the poems of Gray (1884) and the publication of Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885 (5055, ff. 9-13), his Prince Otto, 1885, and Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin, 1887 (5055, ff. 14-20), and a proposed biographical article on Stevenson by Gosse, to which the former took exception (5055, ff. 21-23). Also included is a letter discussing a review by Gosse of Stevenson's Underwoods, 1887, and describing the house at Saranac in the Adirondacks where he passed the winter of 1887/1888 (B4307). Letters written from Samoa concern Gosse's Life of P. H. Gosse, 1890, and his prose style, Stevenson's life at Vailima and the reception of his Ballads, 1890 (5055, ff. 24-27), the character of John Addington Symonds, Stevenson's 'The Ebb Tide' and 'History of a Family of Engineers' (5056, A1777), and the Samoan civil war of 1893 (B4310). Also included are a letter from Gosse to T. J. Wise, 4 Oct. 1899, acknowledging the receipt, on behalf of Miss Laurence Alma-Tadema, of £4. 4s. for a copy of S. L. Osbourne, Black Canyon, 1882 (A1784, f. 173), a letter from W. E. Henley to C. K. Shorter, 17 Feb. 1902, concerning a portrait of Stevenson (B4306, f. 15), a postscript from Mrs Strong to Gosse, 5 Dec. 1894, describing Stevenson's death and burial (5055, ff. 28, 31b), and a photograph of his lying in state (5055, f. xlib). The letters, with the exception of A1775, A1777, A1784, A1786, A1787, B1794, B4310, and 5055, ff. 21-23, are printed, with certain inaccuracies and considerable omissions, in Sidney Colvin, The Letters of R. L. Stevenson, 1911, i, pp. 231-233, 236-239, 248-250, 256-257, 274-276, 285-286; ii, pp. 36-37, 49, 56-57, 63-64, 73-74, 81-83, 113-114, 136-138, 213-214, 229-231, 265-268; iii, pp. 12-13, 257-260; iv,pp. 178-181, 322-325. Passages and letters considered even slightly controversial were excluded from this edition. Ashley Library Catalogue, x, pp. 186, 188-194, 195-196, 198-199, 202; [vi, pp. 3-9].