36 Collected Poems, p. 195
37 Letters, vol. 7, pp.18, 20
38 Ibid., p.20
39 Ibid., p.28
40 Ibid., pp.93–4
41 The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis, pp.789–90
42 Letters, vol. 7, p.24
43 Ibid., p.93
44 Ibid., p.53
45 Ibid., p.60
46 See WH to CB, 17 September 1891, Baxter Letters, p.285
47 Ibid.
48 Letters, vol. 7, p.88
49 Maixner, p.372
50 Gosse to G.A. Armour, 31 January 1891, Evan Charteris (ed.), The Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (London, 1931), p.225
51 Letters, vol. 7, p.115
52 S.S. McClure to RLS, early 1891, quoted in Swearingen, p.142
53 Letters, vol. 7, p. 102
54 H.J. Moors, With Stevenson in Samoa (London, 1911), p.44
55 Letters, vol. 8, p.155
56 Letters, vol. 7, p.161
57 Barry Menikoff, Robert Louis Stevenson and ‘The Beach of Falesá’: A Study in Victorian Publishing (Edinburgh, 1984), p.119
58 Ibid., p. 123
59 Ibid., p.124
60 Clement Shorter, Letters to an Editor (1914), p. iv; quoted in Swearingen, p.154
61 Letters, vol. 7, p.231
62 Ibid., pp.284, 311
63 Austin Strong to GB, 29 June 1925, NLS Balfour, 9896
64 Field, p.253
65 Hammerton, p.110
66 Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, Our Samoan Adventure, ed. Charles Neider (London, 1956), p.100
67 Field, p.256
68 CB to RLS, 17 September 1891, quoted in Baxter Letters, p.284 n8
69 Letters, vol. 7, p.246
70 Ibid., p.253
71 Ibid., p.198
72 Ibid., p.202
73 H.J. Moors, With Stevenson in Samoa (London, 1911), p.115
74 George L. McKay, Some Notes on Robert Louis Stevenson, his Finances and his Agents and his Publishers (New Haven, 1958), p.41
75 Austin Strong to GB, 29 June 1925, NLS Balfour, 9896
14 : THE TAME CELEBRITY
1 Collected Poems, p.199
2 The Works of W.E. Henley (London, 1908), vol. 1, p.229
3 Evan Charteris (ed.), The Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (London, 1931), p.232
4 Hammerton, p.112
5 Ibid., p.101
6 Letters, vol. 7, p.343
7 Quoted in Adam Nicolson, The Hated Wife: Carrie Kipling 1862–1939 (London, 2001), p.25
8 See Frederick R. Karl, Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives (New York, 1979), p.322
9 Letters, vol. 7, pp.93, 40
10 Letters, vol. 8, p.40
11 Letters, vol. 7, p.325
12 Ibid., p.295
13 Ibid., p.345
14 Ibid., p.388
15 Letters, vol. 8, pp.44–5
16 Ibid., p.45 n5
17 Catriona, Vailima, vol. 10, p.222
18 Ibid., p.202
19 Letters, vol. 8, p.193
20 Catriona, Chapter XIV, Vailima, vol. 10, p.222
21 Letters, vol. 8, p.38
22 Letters, vol. 7, p.284
23 Ibid., pp.359–60
24 Ibid., p.365
25 Ibid., p.210
26 Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, Our Samoan Adventure, ed. Charles Neider (London, 1956), pp.185–6
27 Letters, vol. 7, p.338n
28 Ibid., p.312
29 Ibid., p.382
30 Ibid., pp.195–6
31 SC to RLS, 21 March 1894, quoted in Letters, vol. 8, p.279n
32 Ibid., pp.281–2
33 Colvin, pp.148–9
34 Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis (eds), The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde (London, 2000), p.789
35 Graham Greene, ‘From Feathers to Iron’, Collected Essays (London, 1999), p.63
36 Letters, vol. 8, p.68
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid., p.88
39 To S.R. Crockett, ibid., p.77
40 Ibid., pp.68, 70
41 Ibid., and Maixner, p.450
42 Vailima, vol. 18, p.150
43 Vailima, vol. 25, pp.183–7
44 MS Yale, B3 809
45 Letters, vol. 8, p.40
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid., p.61
48 Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, Our Samoan Adventure, ed. Charles Neider (London, 1956), p.219
49 Ibid., pp.235–6. I have adjusted the punctuation of the printed version as indicated, as it does not make sense otherwise
50 Letters, vol. 8, p.246
51 Ibid., p.217
52 Ibid., p.340
53 Ibid., p.105
54 Ibid., p.44
55 Ibid., p.356 n2
56 For a full account of the genesis, production, reception and significance of the Edinburgh Edition, see Andrew Nash, ‘The Dead Should be Protected from their Own Carelessness’, The Culture of Collected Editions (Basingstoke, 2003), pp.111–27
57 Collected Poems, p.300
58 Maixner, p.468
59 Ibid., p.465
60 Letters, vol. 8, p.371
61 Vailima, vol. 18, p.244
62 Ibid., pp.376–7
63 Maixner, p.466
64 Ibid., p.462
65 Letters, vol. 8, p.408
66 Ibid., p.402
67 Ibid., p.402 n2. Austin only told Graham Balfour this story in 1910
68 Ibid.
69 13 January 1895, Margaret Isabella Stevenson, Letters from Samoa 1891–95 (London, 1906), p.327
70 Belle Strong’s account, Letters, vol. 8, p.403
71 Colvin, pp.147–8
POSTSCRIPTS
1 Lloyd Osbourne, 20 Letters to Isobel Field, July – December 1940, MS Bancroft
2 Leon Edel (ed.), Henry James, Letters (Cambridge, Mass., 1974–84), vol. 4, p.213
3 Maixner, pp.494–500
4 HJ to GB, 25 November 1901, NLS Balfour, 9895, f5203
5 Ford Madox Ford, Memories and Impressions (Harmondsworth, 1971), p.182
6 Frederick R. Karl, Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives (New York, 1979), p.438
7 Frederick R. Karl et al. (eds), Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad (Cambridge, 1983–2002), vol. 2, p.371
8 HJ to GB, 3 July 1902, NLS Balfour, 9895, f255
9 Leon Edel (ed.), Henry James, Letters (Cambridge, Mass., 1974–84), vol. 4, p.241
Praise
From the reviews of Robert Louis Stevenson:
‘It takes real skill to preserve a sense of overall shape amid so much vivid detail, as Harman’s excellent biography does. Her judgments are crisp yet unobtrusive … She allows Stevenson to bring himself to life, letting his febrile charm, his “peculiar sparkle”, flicker through’
CAROLINE MOORE, Sunday Telegraph
‘Uncommonly good … Harman’s narrative is full, rich, intelligent and smooth; it moves with a wholly admirable ease … A continuous pleasure to read … A very fine biography’
ALLAN MASSIE, Literary Review
‘Irresistibly entertaining … Harman’s addition to the field is perceptive and up-to-date. Her commentaries on his famous works are intelligent, and she judiciously introduces the reader to some interesting less well-known pieces’
Daily Telegraph
‘Claire Harman’s biography of Stevenson is cool, ironic and often funny … A lively and accessible introduction to her compelling subject’
JEREMY TREGLOWN, Financial Times
‘Rich and colourful … Harman’s book is a delight from beginning to end. She is steeped in Stevenson and can match his swift, vivid style … Nobody else has written so perceptively about the women in his life … His courage and resilience shine through it all, and as, regretfully, you turn the last page you feel that the doomed and dazzling Peter Pan of Scottish literature has found a worthy biographer at last’
JOHN CAREY, Sunday Times
‘Splendid and readable … shrewd and insightful … In Claire Harman, Stevenso
n has found a worthy, committed and sympathetic chronicler’
FRANK MCLYNN, Irish Times
‘Harman skilfully weaves an understanding of Stevenson’s literary borrowings into a beautifully shaped narrative. But equally, she possesses a tenderhearted appreciation of Stevenson himself. RLS has never been portrayed with such diligence and care … Her portraits of Stevenson’s nearest and dearest are also unsurpassed’
MARK BOSTRIDGE, Independent on Sunday
‘Superbly readable … A marvellous, eventful read, thanks to its brave, witty, open-hearted hero and his live-wire intelligence and conscience’
Evening Standard
‘A highly readable account that alters the usual perspective, setting Stevenson in a wider cultural environment, less Scottish, more European … The Stevenson who emerges from Harman’s biography is complex and contradictory … Harman’s judicious portrait of [his] sometimes tortured marriage is a particular strength’
Scotsman
By the Same Author
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Robert Louis Stevenson, Essays and Poems (editor)
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