The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1895, 1895-05-03
STEVENSON.
His letters to be published

| JUo llteTdIy oAoCubOI VI IeODoIt
Louis Stevenson, has been t, Sa-
moa to collect Stevenson's literary
remains. He announces that he
will publish them as part of a
collected edition of Stevenson's
works when he returns to England.
Extracts from Stevenson diary
have already been given by Mr..
/ Baxter to the newspapers of San
Francisco, where he has been
some days on his way from Sa-
moa to England.
1t is to be hoped that Mr.. Bax-
ter is a man Of taste and discre-
ton; for if he is not, his present
undertaking may not help the
fame or credit of his friend. The
diSectd men,bra of an authors
compositions are not always suited
for publication. When Nathaniel
Hawthorne's children published
such posthumous works of their
father as CDR. Grimshaw's Sec
ret" "Septimius FELTON," and
1.-THE Dolliver Romance" they
did not add to the reputation of
the author of "The Scarlet Let
ter" and they raised suspicion
that Hawthorue's intellect had
begun to decay before he died.
when James Anthony Froude
published Carlisle's letters, which
would never have seen the light
had the biographer of Frederick
been living, he impaired public
admiration for the writer and
inspired critics to assail his cha
racter. So. now, if Mr.. Baxter
gives to the world besides the in
complete romances Of EST. Ives
and THE Lord Chief-J ustice's
Clerk" hastily written letters by
Stevenson, without due considera-
ton of the effect they may produce.
it is quite possible that his indis-
Greet zeal may impair the great
writer's fame. Even the greatest
of writer's sometimes indite tri-
vialities which they never intend
ed for public perusal; it is hardly
fair that an executor should do
what they would not have ventur-
ed to do themselves.
Stevenson's dairy has been lin
troduced to the public by extracts
published in the Examiner. 1t is
chatty, jolly, devil-may- care
sort of imposition, in which the
author groans over his inability to
write so as to suit his own fasti-
dious taste, and shows us what a
nervous and irritable though
good-natdred creature the man
was. The extracts contain nothing
which could initiate against
Stevenson's reputation; but then
they are only extracts; we can not
tell what the rest of the diary
contains. As rule, people are
not helped by the posthumous
publication of their diaries. Per-
sons OF a high strung and sensi-
tive organization commit to their
diaries thoughts which they would
have told no one by word OF
mouth; whence it has been said
that no one but a pig or an idiot
ever keeps diary. If the diary
is honest. it is not intended for
general perusal; if it is written to
be published. it is self conscious
and affected. Witness Marie
Bashkitsoff.
Stevenson's diary is in the torn
of letters to his advisor, Sidney
Colvin, and it contains Just what
the novelist would have been like,
~ to confde to bosom friend.
1t reminds the reader of Sir
Walter SCOTS letters to Lock
hart, which constitute the chiel
charm of Lockhart's life of his
, father-in.la Scott undoubtedly
wrote with the idea that his
/; letters might be published. will
suitable expurgations; they give
a dashing picture OF the gallant
big-hearted rather narrow-mind-
sd author OF "Waverly." A better
diary in the form of letters il