Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial

The author traces the writer's life and literary development through biography, critical essays, and reproduced letters, combining personal reminiscence with close readings of major works and themes. Chapters survey early influences and heredity, the creation and reception of celebrated fiction, periods of travel and Pacific residence, later compositions, and experiments in drama and moral thought. The volume includes facsimile letters, memorial tributes, assessments by contemporaries, and reflections on stylistic traits such as imagination, melancholy, and comic invention. It balances record, estimate, and commemoration by mixing anecdote, criticism, and documentary material.