Manuscripts

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS. Blank copybooks: Five blank copybooks used by Stevenson for rough notes, trial drafts of prose and poems, etc., and 1 odd back cover removed from a sixth. Book (1) contains in Stevenson's hand a title for the contents, "Little Odes & Songs" (p.i); Latin quotation from George Buchanan (p.ii); 10 lines, trial preface for a group of poems, (p.iii); 1½-line note (p.v); inside the back cover, his pencilled laundry list in French, a record of book paged to be remembered, and a rough map: Book (2), Autograph note, "Commenced late in /66 or early in /67 finished--"; half a page of "Notes from Anstruther," (p.i); Book (3), a few pencil words on recto of last page and several figures on inside back cover: Book (4), on inside front cover in Graham Balfour's hand is a list of former contents, on inside back cover by Balfour, "verses imperfect, p.82 metres," and a notation by R.L.S. in pencil: Book (5) on the cover is a label from Colvin's hand, "Draft (1879-80) with notes of authorship on Scottish history at end," and above, in Balfour's "Essays and Remarks on Human Life," inside the front cover is the R. & W. Lorimer, Glasgow, rubber trade stamp, and a few figures by R.L.S.;

OVER

FROM THE HENRY A. COLGATE SALE - THE ANDERSON GALLERIES CATALOGUE - FEB. 8, 1928.

THIRTEEN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEMS, SOME UNPUBLISHED, INCLUDING THE COMPLETE VERSION OF "REQUIEM"

214 MANUSCRIPT POEMS. Thirteen Autograph Manuscript Poems, written continuously on 14 pp., 4to, evidently a part of a larger volume, the pages being numbered 48-60.

In a crimson morocco slip case.

The Autograph Manuscript, with several interlineations and revisions, of some of the most famous, and several of the intimate, carefully hidden poems of Love by Stevenson. These sheets were apparently taken from the volume to prevent publication or for careful revision, as those that were published show many changes. Comprises:

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS. Beginning: "Out of the world, out of the sun." Published in "Underwoods". The printed version contains 76 lines, but this manuscript has 86. Stevenson's marginal annotation shows that it was written at Edinburgh in February, 1879.

YOU KNOW THE RIVER NEAR TO GREZ. Unpublished. A love song commemorating the first meeting with his wife at Frez. The poem was written in San Francisco in Dec. 1879. One whole verse has been crossed out and another inserted in the margin.

"WHAT MAN MAY LEARN, WHAT MAN MAY DO." Unpublished. Written by Stevenson on his twenty-ninth birthday. Three verses, six lines each. The second verse contains the motto of his life:

"To close the ears, to check the tongue,
To keep the pining spirit young;
To act the right, to say the true
And to be kind whate'er you do."

THE PIPER. Believed to be unpublished. Written in San Francisco in 1880 just before his marraige. The Piper endeavors to lure him to "the open highway and the sea", but "You can never pipe my fancy from my dear."

"SMALL IS THE TRUST WHEN LOVE IS GREEN". Presumably unpublished. Written in San Francisco in 1880. 6 verses of 4 lines each. One of the very personal poems of Stevenson in which he expressed his ideal of love, an ideal which proved true throughout his life.

IN AMERICA. Published under the title of "In the States." Written in San Francisco in 1880.

(REQUIEM.) The most famous of Stevenson's poems, and one of the finest epitaphs in modern literature. Written in San Francisco, January 1880. Inscribed on Stevenson's tomb in Samoa. Contains an additional stanza to the usual published versions, which Stevenson omitted in the published versions.

AN ENGLISH BREEZE. Believed to be unpublished. Written in Oakland, Calif. in 1880. An ode to the morning breeze of England. "GOD GAVE TO ME A CHILD IN PART." Unpublished. Reveals an apparently unannounced fact relating to the early days of Stevenson's married life. It expresses the emotions of fatherhood that never came to fruition, and makes evident that there was in this marriage an unborn child, for whose birth its parents had longed in vain.

"God gave to me a child in part
Yet wholly gave the father's heart:-
Child of my soul, O whither now,
Unborn, unmothered, goest thou?"

"DEATH, TO THE DEAD FOREVERMORE." Unpublished. An ode of welcome to death, written in 1875, it expresses Stevenson's cheerful idea of the end: a perfect rest.

"YET O STRICKEN HEART, REMEMBER, O REMEMBER." Published in "Underwoods" under the title "In Memoriam F.A.S." One of the most beautiful poems by Stevenson, in which he tries to bring consolation to Mrs. Sitwell for the death of her son from consumption at Davos.

"AS IN THEIR FLIGHT THE BIRDS OF SONG." Unpublished. Commemorates the same incident as the preceding, in which he develops the idea that those who die young are like birds of song "Upon the sun they wait to ride the sailing blast."

"IT'S FORTH ACROSS THE ROARING FOAM AND ON TOWARDS THE WEST." Unpublished. The verses refer to Stevenson's arrival at San Francisco, and the help that he received there when he was sick, along and poor. Each stanza ends with "The Gates of Gold."

"I have been near, I have been far, my back's been at the wall
Yet aye and ever shone the star to guide me through it all
The love of God, the help of man, they both shall make me bold
Against the gates of darkness as beside the Gates of Gold."

(SEE ILLUSTRATION)

"(Facsimile of the complete unpublished version of Stevenson's immortal 'Regiom.""

UNPUBLISHED PREFACE

BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

FOR A VOLUME OF VERSES.

( A FRAGMENT . )

It may be asked why a gentleman not in any way favored
of the muses should write and print his verses; and whether
or not by the promptings of self deception, I conceive I have
found an answer. There are many pleasant thoughts of too
little consistence for prose; they would not bear to be laid
and beaten on that rude anvil; they do not enter organically
into the process of any argument, nay even some of their charm
may spring from isolation. On these the poet who has the gift
of perfect utterance confers a delightful immortality and
we have what is not the least precious of man's possessions,
Catullus, Martial, Herrick, Heine; and here and there, a poppy
in a field of tares, snatches like the song of "Rose Aylmer."
So far I carry my audience along with me; but when we approach
the case of the man who has no such gift, who stammers verses---

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.

UNPUBLISHED PREFACE

(fragment)

For a volume of verses (presumably "UNDERWOOD")

It was Stevenson's custom to try his hand at prefaces, and introductory poems, for his books, many of such little manuscripts remaining unpublished.

The present paper is especially interesting in its reference to Catullus, Martial, Herrick, and Heine. The first three of these poets decidedly influenced Stevenson's verse; and indeed (although Stevenson's biographers make no mention of the fact) Stevenson made delightful translations, or rather, paraphrases, of many of Martial's poems. These he intended to print; but they remain unpublished.

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS. Blank notebook, marbled boards, with label in the hand of Isobel Strong, "No. A 264 A Early Notes."

The pages are numbered by R.L.S, 15-22 29-34 41-60; beyond 60 there is no pagination. The missing pages have been removed with their contents, by the previous owner. A half-page, unnumbered is laid in.

On front inside cover in R.L.S.'s hand: "Commenced late in '66 or early in '67 finished." The half-page in R.L.S.'s hand is a list of Notes from Anstruther.