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Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson

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Some of the best writers of his time--Henry James, for one--looked forward eagerly to getting letters from Stevenson, as he traveled around the world, looking for a place that might improve his health. (From boyhood on, he suffered from severe lung problems.) Dip into this book at random, and you'll see why. Stevenson put himself into his letters unreservedly--there's a confidential tone of voice throughout them that's warmly appealing--and he is acutely perceptive on a wide range of subjects, including himself. Ernest Mehew has judiciously chosen the best of the letters, and arranged them to create a de facto autobiography. This is a book that every literate person--and particularly anyone interested in nineteenth century literature in English--should have close at hand.

The " SELECTED LETTERS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON " reads like a biography . It's a competent abridgment of Stevenson's correspondence published in eight volumes (1994-95), also by Yale University Press .