River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-01-02
a GREAT WRITER'S mopgsrY.
Robert Louis steyenson's Slight Estims
of ala Literary Powers.

of Ris Literary Powers
Modesty is always a refreshing quail
fly, but never more so than when it
sets or great achievements in any
field. In McClure's Magazine a num-
Der of extracts are given from the
Vailima letters written by Robert
Louis Stevenson to mis- dear friend,
Sidney Colvin. of the British Museum.
The last letter was pennei in October,
1894, and part of il reads as foiiows:
II know / am at a climacterie for all
men who live by their wits, SO do not
despair. But the truth is am pretty
nearly useless at literature, were it not
for my health. which made it impossi-
BILE. l could not find 1t in my heart to
rgive myself that did not stick TO
an honest, commonplace trade when |
was young, which might have now
supported me during all tn sse Ill years.
But do not suppose me - be down in
anything else; only, for the Iouee, my
skill deserts me, such as il is. or was
IL was a very little dose of Inspiration,
and a pretty little trick of style, long
lost, improved by the most heroic in
dustry. So far, / have managed
to please the journalist Bat
am fictitious article an5
have long known It 1 am read oy
Journalists. by my fellow noyeiists.
and by boys; with these, incipit ct ex-
plicit my vogue. Good thing anyway
for it seems to have sold the edition.
And look forward confidently to an
aftermath; do not think my health
can be so hugely improved without
some subsequent improvement in my
brains Though, of course. there is
the possibility that literature is NOR
bid secretion, and abhors healthl do
/ not think it is possible to have fewer
/ illusions than L / sometimes wish
I had more. They are amusing. But I
I can not take myself seriously as an
I artist; the limitations are so obvious
/ did take myself seriously as work.
man of old, but my practice has fallen
/ of. 1 am now an idler and cumberer
/ of the ground; it may be excused to me
perhaps by twenty years of industry
and I'll health, which have taken the
cream off the milk"
This Is sufficiently amazing when one
realizes how the critical world as we'll
as the uncritical, had been lavishing
praise for years upon Stevenson's W or<
when he wrote the words in a mood Of
1 intimate self-revelation to his good
1 friend. It seems almost incredible
that he should have thought deep down
/ IN his heart that ne possessed nothing
much but a pretty little trick OF
styles" 1t is rather pity that this
statement should be published, for a
..;- ,uxr har 81 Y,aonla will tatra him
at his own valuation, as the world, in
deed, is prone to do in the case of all
men. Strange, too, that he should fancy
his earlier power had waned. when, as
a matter of fact, some of his finest work
/ was being done aud perhaps his finest
/ of all-was in him for the doing
4 had not death put stop to it. Very
/ likely the letter is best explained as a
temporary fit of depression such as
/ men of his temperament are Sect to;
| but anyway, we repeat, refreshing 1t is
20 find such humble-mindedness in a
writer generally acknowledged to be a
chief In his generation. Nor is the
trait uniqus. Alexander Dumas. the
elder, DYING, asked his son in all tho
/ solemnity of last interview, if he
honestly thought any of his books
would survive. And this in the face of
q phenomenal popularity, never
/ greater than at the time of his passing
away. There is a streak of self-dis-
trust and depreciation in the truly ar
] tistio temperament, and 1t is charac-
/ teristic which makes that particular
sort of mortal all the more lovable.-
/ Hartford Courant