Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson v. 4 Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth, Ernest Mehew

Robert Louis Stevenson, long recognized as a master storyteller and essayist, was also one of the finest and most delightful of letter writers. This is one of a set of eight volumes containing his collected letters. The edition contains nearly 2800 letters. Volumes III and IV cover the period from August 1879 to June 1884. The 600 letters tell the full story of Stevenson's reckless journey to California as an "amateur emigrant", during which he gained a wife but wrecked his health. They describe his return to Europe and his futile search to improve his health in Scotland, Switzerland and France, and reveal interesting aspects of the writing of "Treasure Island", "Virginibus Puerisque" (his first volume of collected essays), and many poems later collected in "Underwoods" and in "A Child's Garden of Verses".