STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS: (1850-1894)

STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS: (1850-1894) Scottish novelist of Treasure Island (1883), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886). An extraordinary A.L.S., Robert Louis Stevenson, four pages, 8vo, n.p. (Edinburgh), n.d. (Autumn 1873), to his cousin Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson ( 'My dear Bob'), on Stevenson's monogrammed stationery. The twenty-three year old Stevenson writes with a certain amount of humour in his letter, although signs of a personal crisis (both financial and mental) pervade through the content, in part, 'I have written to no one for about a month. I can't come to Paris just now, owing to my being so bloody uncoiny......I had to sponge on fellows for tobacco. Wasn't that death for a rising literary gent? I have not been able to write either; just such hell, in spirits, health &c. This drunken city exerts its strange prerogative; and I do something sacrifice to the God of the coloured bottles. However I am going to be good (I have not been very bad, you know, only I don't like the game at all); and in the meantime I've got enough coin scraped together to go to London for three days (where I shall see Katharine [Bob's sister] ) and then land myself in the character of a mendicant at Cambridge where I shall be fed and clothed for a week at Trin[ity] Coll[ege] ....As for Paris, I suppose it will be Spring before I can manage that; but then I shall come for some time and make a good holiday of it. I shall take this letter out with me and part with it when I have found out the date for Academy pictures......I say, old man, Edinburgh is a very sanguinary shop, and bloodier than ever, you should be glad you are out of it'. Beneath his signature Stevenson playfully observes 'Writing as large as this is such damned fun - I can't stop though I have nothing to say' and further adds a postscript, signed with his initials RLS, which fills the entire fourth page, in part, 'I am trying stories and all sorts of things, with no success. I am an incompetent bugger, I shall write soon, when I am in a holier, happier, better state of mind and body.......I am damned miserable now sometimes, and have a struggle to keep from liquor and opium and things of that sort. I wish to God you were here. I am going south tomorrow so the worst is over; the change will put me up again......' A rare letter of exceptional content. Some very light age wear and a few minor stains to the edges, otherwise VG Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson (1847-1900) Scottish art critic, a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson. After studying at the Edinburgh School of Art Stevenson moved to Paris in 1873 where he continued his studies under Carolus Duran. Katharine de Mattos (1851-1939) Scottish author and journalist, sister of Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson and a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson and his cousin Bob enjoyed a close friendship, leading Bohemian lifestyles in Edinburgh and becoming members of the LJR (Liberty, Justice, Reverenvce) Club whose constitution began with the statement 'Disregard everything our parents have taught us'. Stevenson would visit his cousin in Paris in April 1874.