Biographical References

           The 'biography of Robert Louis Stevenson' seems almost a minor literary genre in itself. Balfour's 1901 work is a necessary starting-point as he had known Stevenson and was able to consult family and friends. Those by Furnas and Le Bris are not only well-written but also involve the reader in the author's stubborn questioning of available evidence, questioning aimed at drawing some conclusions about the most probable version of events and their most plausible explanation. The work by Calder is also an essential reference for those interested in the life. Rankin's work involves more the 'questioning' of Stevensonian places to illuminate the life and works as well as aspects of cultural and historicne but gives the fullest account of the Samoa period.
 

• Aldington, Richard (1957). Portrait of a Rebel. London: Evans Brothers.

• Balfour Graham (1901). The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson.London: Methuen.

• Bell, Ian (1992). Robert Louis Stevenson: Dreams of Exile. Edinburgh:Mainstream.

• Bell, Gavin (1994). In Search of Tusitala: Travels in the Pacific After Robert Louis Stevenson. London: Picador.

• Bevan, Bryan (1993). Robert Louis Stevenson: Poet and Teller of Tales. New York: St. Martin's Press (ISBN: 0312103026), $39.95.['Bevan's volume finds its strength in his elucidation of Stevenson's final, difficult years in the South Seas', YWES]

• Cohen, Edward H. (1974). The Henley-Stevenson Quarrel. Gainesville, University Presses of Florida.

• Colvin, Sidney (1924). Robert Louis Stevenson: His Work And Personality. London: Hodder & Stoughton. [Contributions from Gosse, Munro, Lowe, Crockett, Osbourne etc.; a revised version of the 'Bookman Extra Number' (1913) dedicated to RLS]

• Daiches, David (1973). Robert Louis Stevenson and his World. London: Thames & Hudson.

• Davies, Hunter (1997). The Teller of Tales: In Search of Robert Louis Stevenson. ***: Interlink (ISBN: 156656204X), $16.00.

• Elwin, Malcolm (1950). The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson. London: Macdonald.

• Calder, Jenni (1980). RLS: A Life Study. London: Hamish Hamilton.

• Shirley (1997). Robert Louis Stevenson: Finding Treasure Island. Minneapolis: Lemer Publications. [144 pp.].

• Fitzpatrick, Elayne Wareing (1997, 2^nd ed). A Quixotic Companionship: Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson. Monterey: Old Monterey Preservation Society. [104 pp., illustrated].

• Furnas, J.C. (1952). Voyage to Windward: thber.

• Gherman, Beverly (1996). Robert Louis Stevenson: Teller of Tales. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 0689319851), $16.00. [Biography focusing on the events of the life, ill. with photographs, 136pp; designed for readers 8-12 years]

• Hammerton, J. A. (1910). Stevensoniana. An anecdotal life and appreciation of Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh: John Grant.

• Hellman, George (1925). The True Stevenson: a Study in Clarification. Boston: Little. Brown & Co. ['the discreet George Hellman is indispensible on his sex life', Louis Stott]

• Jacquette, Rodolphe (1980). Tusitala: ou, La vie aventureuse de Robert-Louis Stevenson. Paris : Seghers.

• Knight, Alanna (1974). The Passionate Kindness. ****: Milton House. Reprinted Glasgow: Molendinar Press, 1980.

• Knight, Alanna (1986). R.L.S. in the South Seas: An Intimate Photographic Record. Edinburgh/***: Mainstream/Paragon House (ISBN: 0913729329), $18.95.

• Le Bris, Michel (1994). Robert Louis Stevenson. Les années bohémiennes 1850/1880. Paris: Nil. [first volume of two]

• MacLynn, Frank (1993). Robert Louis Stevenson. London: Hutchinson.

• Masson, Rosaline (1922). I Can Remember Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh/London: Chambers.

• Moors, Harry J. (1910). With Stevenson in Samoa. Boston/London: Small, Maynard & Co./ *** [memoir by Stevenson's friend on Samoa; includes 47 photographs]

• Neider, Charles (ed.) (1956). Fanny and Robert Stevenson: Our Samoan Adventure. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. [intro.; texts by S and Fanny S, incl F's diary 1890-3]

• Osborne, Lloyd (1924). An Intimate Portrait of R.L.S. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons [warmly affectionate biographical sketches by S's stepson; included as prefaces to the Tusitala and Skerryvore Editions]

• Rankin, Nick (1987). Dead Man's Chest: Travels after R.L.S. London: Faber.

• Rice, Edward (1971). Journey to Upolu; Robert Louis Stevenson, Victorian rebel. New York, Dodd, Mead

• Sanchez, Nellie Van de Grift (1920). The Life of Mrs R.L. Stevenson. New York/London: Chafrles Scribner's Sons/*** [favourable portrait by Fanny's sister; contains details of her early life not found elsewhere]

• Stevenson, Fanny (1915). The Cruise of the Janet Nichol. London: *** [the diary on which this is based is in the SIlverado Museum]

• Stevenson, Margaret Isabella (1903). From Saranac to the Marquesas and Beyond. London: Methuen. [account by S's mother]

• Stevenson, Margaret Isabella (1906). Letters from Samoa: 1891-1895. ***

•  Stevenson, Margaret Isabella (1922). Stevenson's Baby Book. San Francisco: ***

• Strong, Isobel (1920). Robert Louis Stevenson. Saranac Lake, NY: Stevenson Society of America.

• Strong, Isobel (1937). This Life I've Loved. London/New York: Longman, Green/ Charles Scribner's Sons ['gossipy and attractive memoirs' by S's stepdaughter]

•  Strong, Isobel & Lloyd Osbourne (1902). Memories e US edition is 228 pp. with 31 b&w photographs; the UK edition that I have seen is 151 pp and with only an engraved portrait frontispiece]

• Terry, R. C. (ed.) (1996). Robert Louis Stevenson: Interviews and Recollections. Iowa City: U Iowa P (ISBN 0877455120). $24.95. [50 recollections by his wife, stepson, mother, Frances Sitwell, Andrew Lang, Henry Adams and others]

 

• Ambrosini, Sonia (1991). ‘La fortuna critica di Robert Louis Stevenson in Italia, con riferimento ad Italo Calvino’. Laurea (M.A.) dissertation, Università di Bergamo.

• Borges, Jorge Luis (1979). ‘Prefazione’. Robert Louis Stevenson. L’isola delle voci. Parma: Ricci [‘fin dall’infanzia Robert Louis Stevenson è stato per me una delle forme della felicità’]

• Chesterton, G,K, (1927). Robert Louis Stevenson. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

• Maixner, Paul (ed.) (1981). Robert Louis Stevenson: the Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

• Menikoff, Barry (1987). ‘Class and Culture in the English Short Story’ [review]. Journal of the Short Story in English 8: 125-139.

• Menikoff, Barry (1990). ‘New Arabian Nights: Stevenson’s experiment in Fiction’. Nineteenth-Century Literature 43iii: 339-362.

• Noble, Andrew (1985). From the Clyde to California. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Emigrant Journey. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP.

• Woolf, Leonard (1927). 'The Fall of Stevenson'. Essays on Literature, History, Politics etc.. London: Hogarth press.

Back to biography's index  

© Richard Dury 1997