Search Results: Books by robert louis stevenson

London: Cassell & Co, 1883. First edition. First issue being one of the first 750 copies to be bound including the October advertisement. 8vo., original green cloth binding, one of six different colours with no order of preference. A very good copy.||A very important tale of pirates, derring do, exotic isles and ocean voyages which has influenced boys’ literature for over a century.| First edition, first issue with the October advertisement

London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. First Edition - English. Historic presentation copy inscribed and signed by the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, to his stepdaughter, Isobel Osbourne Strong. Inscribed on the half-title: “Belle from R.L.S., Sydney, Feb 17th 1891.” Original gilt-stamped blue cloth. Endpapers have some darkening, else a fine copy. The book is a remarkable collection of his ballads of the fanciful and weird set in both the South Seas and in Scotland ending with the moving “Christmas At Sea.” This presentation copy carries with it a very significant background, for the book was presented at the decisive moment in the relationship of R.L.S., and his stepdaughter. Stevenson had traveled alone to Sydney, Australia in February 1891 in large part to persuade Belle to give up her desire to remain in Australia and provide for herself and her son through some employment prospects. Stevenson, however, counted them as his family and she recalled that he “talked with such kindness, such… Read More

London: Cassell & Company, Limited,, 1883. Fifteen men on the dead man's chest / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! First edition in book form, with all the points of first issue, of Stevenson's classic adventure story of "buccaneers and buried gold", his first great success as a novelist. Treasure Island was inspired by the now-famous treasure map the author had drawn to entertain his young stepson - to whom the book is dedicated - "on a rainy day in the Scottish Highlands" (Grolier). In a later essay, Stevenson remembered: "[the map] was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully coloured; the shape of it took my fancy beyond expression; it contained harbours that pleased me like sonnets; and with the unconsciousness of the predestined, I ticketed my performance "Treasure Island"... The map was the most of the plot. I might almost say it was the whole. A few reminiscences of Poe, Defoe, and Washington Irving, a copy of Johnson's Buccaneers, the name of the Dead Man's Chest from Kingsley's At Last, some… Read More

London: Cassell & Company, 1883. First edition, first issue with "dead man's chest" not capitalized on pp. 2 and 7; The first letter for "rain" or "vain" in the last line of p. 40 is broken so we can't tell which state it is; the "a" is not present in line 6 of p. 63; the "8" is not present in the pagination on p. 83; the "7" is larger and bolder in pagination on p. 127; the period is lacking following "opportunity" in line 20 of p. 178; "worst" is mispelled as "worse" in the third line of p 197. Treasure Island is listed as having 304 pages on p. 2 of the publisher's advertisements. Octavo (7 1/2 x 4 7/8 inches; 191 x 124 mm). viii, 292, [8 pp. advertisements, "dated 5R-12.83."] pp. Frontispiece map of Treasure Island, printed in four colors and has the original tissue guard. Only 2000 copies of this first book edition published and bound in a variety of cloth colors, no priority. Original rare royal blue diagonal fine-ribbed cloth with covers ruled in blind and spine ruled and lettered in gilt.… Read More

Cassell &Co, 1883. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A very good first printing with all first issue points present. Housed in a custom-made fold-out case. Comes with a letter by the bookseller, Francis Edwards from London, to his client, dated December 16th 1924, in which he states that this is a first edition.

London: Published for the Florence Press by Chatto & Windus, 1910. ONE OF 250 COPIES ON PAPER (12 additional copies were printed on vellum). 250 x 185 mm. (9 7/8 x 7 1/4"). 5 p.l., 120 pp., [1] leaf. ANIIMATED DARK GREEN INLAID CRUSHED MOROCCO, ELABORATELY GILT, BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (signed on front turn-in), covers with inlaid border of russet ribbon laced at each corner through a blue heart from which is suspended a pair of bells in inlaid brown morocco, an inner border of red inlaid hearts alternating with small gilt floral tools, front cover with centerpiece medallion of five inlaid flowers in green, white, and yellow on a densely stippled ground within a red inlaid circle with a gilt collar of oak leaves and acorns, rear board with centerpiece inlay in brown and pink of Pan pipes suspended on a ribbon, the whole enclosed in a gilt garland; raised bands, spine gilt in compartments featuring floral cornerpieces and knotwork centerpiece with red heart and dot inlays, very ornate gilt inner… Read More

Various: Various Publishers, 1878-1926. An extensive collection of forty-nine works by Robert Louis Stevenson, publishing date 1878-1926 to include the Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Sidney Colvin, Methuen 1899 and The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson by Graham Balfour 1901. 2 vols. Stevenson's Baby Book, John Howell, San Francisco 1922. Cummy's Diary, A Diary kept by Robert Louis Stevenson's nurse, Alison Cunningham 1863. Chatto & Windus 1926. Ltd 734/780; Edinburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson with etchings by A Brunet-Debaines. Seeley Jackson and Halliday 1879. Octavo, 49 volumes, bound in dark green morocco, title titles to the spine, raised bands, gilt top edge, original covers are tipped at the back of each book. In near fine condition. A nice set. "Few writers have during their lifetime commanded so much admiration and regard from their fellow-craftsmen Energy of vision goes hand in hand with magic of presentment, and both words and things acquire new meaning and a… Read More

Edinburgh: by T. and A. Constable for Longmans Green and Co.,, 1894. Handsomely bound set. The Edinburgh edition, number 349 of 1035 numbered sets, initialled by the publisher on the limitation page. Due to the quality of the printing and paper, the Edinburgh edition is widely considered to be the best edition of Stevenson's collected works. 32 volumes, octavo. Attractively bound in recent burgundy morocco, spines gilt in compartments, blue and black morocco labels, decorative roll to boards, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. 4 frontispieces printed on Japon vellum, 4 coloured map frontispieces printed on Japon vellum and 7 frontispieces on laid watermarked paper; double page coloured map printed on Japon vellum; Titles printed in red and black some with vignettes. The occasional minor blemish, an excellent set.

London: Smith, Elder and Co.; John Murray, 1933. Hardcover. Good. Magazine. 105 bound volumes and 98 individual issues in wrappers. Octavos. A long run from 1860-1933 of this famous Victorian literary magazine known for debuting the works of many important English writers. The set includes volumes 1-29 (January 1860-June 1874), 34-114 (July 1876-December 1916), and volumes 125-129 (January 1922-June 1924) bound in contemporary publisher's cloth or full linen boards. Also included are 98 monthly issues (numbers 337-450) in the original printed wrappers (July 1924-December 1933, lacking July 1930, and May, November, and December 1931). Among the many complete works included in this long run are the first appearances of *Framley Parsonage*, *The Claverings*, and two other novels by Trollope, as well as Thackeray's *The Adventures of Philip* and his complete column: "Roundabout Papers." Other works from the 1860s include *Romola* by George Eliot, *Wives and Daughters* by Elizabeth Gaskell, *Armadale* by… Read More

London, Paris & New York: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1883. First Edition, First Issue. Hardcover. Very Good. Original brown silk-grained cloth, bordered in blind, black coated endpapers, gilt spine lettering (issued in various colours without priority). Pp. viii, 292, followed by 4 pages of publisher's advertisements numbered 5G-783. Original frontispiece map in 4 colours with tissue guard. Bookplate of noted British bibliophile, Eric S. Quayle, to front pastedown, covers lightly soiled, very slight lean, upper corner lightly bruised, paper over rear joint split which has been somewhat crudely repaired, housed in a custom, highly durable, clamshell box of brown/maroon pebbled cloth with inset mounted copy of map and lettered in gilt, double gilt-stamped leather spine labels. A very good copy, with first edition points as follows: P. 2 & 7: "deadman's chest" not capitalized; P. 40, last two lines: the "v" in vain, and also the "m" in the word miscreant above is broken; P. 63: "A" missing in line 6;… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897. First Edition preceding the English edition. Laid in is a one page Autograph Letter Signed by the author, Robert Louis Stevenson to S.S. McClure, publisher of McClure’s Magazine which serialized Stevenson’s novel, St. Ives, prior to book publication. Written from Valima in Samoa, on September 7, 1894, just weeks before Stevenson’s death on December 3rd. “...Pursuant to a note from Bunter, I have the pleasure to send you an epitome of St. Ives. Without doubt it was a task! And I fear it will not increase the interest of any human being, but you must be judge of that, and employ it accordingly or not, as your better wisdom shall suggest. The Magazine seems to me to go on swimmingly. Please remember me to your wife and the twins. Ever yours, R.L. Stevenson....” At the time of his death, Stevenson had left St. Ives unfinished, and Arthur Quiller-Couch wrote the last few chapters to complete the work using Stevenson’s notes and the outline he had… Read More

London: Cassell & Company, Limited,, 1883. Immediately hailed by critics as a classic First edition of this classic of children's literature, the greatest of all pirate tales. Treasure Island was inspired by the now-famous treasure map the author had drawn to entertain his young stepson "on a rainy day in the Scottish Highlands" (Grolier). It was first serialized in Young Folks magazine from October 1881 to January 1882 under the pseudonym "Captain George North". It was only with the appearance of this first edition in book form, however, that it received serious attention, and "was immediately hailed by critics as a classic" (ibid.). This copy has the points indicative of earliest issue: "dead man's chest" not capitalized on page 2, line 6 nor page 7, line 19; the full stop not present following "opportunity" in line 20, and the first state advertisements coded "5R-1083". Octavo. Original green cloth (issued in various colours without priority), spine lettered in gilt, black endpapers. Housed in… Read More

Cassell, 1883. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A very good first printing with all first issue points present. Housed in a custom-made collector's case.

N.p., 1890. 3-1/2 pages, written on rectos, each cut from a single folio sheet formed by pasting together two smaller sheets. Oblong 8vo. With a few scattered short closed tears repaired verso with paper, ink identification written vertically in left margin of two pages and in pencil 51, 52, 53, faint scattered soiling. 3-1/2 pages, written on rectos, each cut from a single folio sheet formed by pasting together two smaller sheets. Oblong 8vo. ORIGINAL DRAFT FROM "THE SOUTH SEAS" By 1888, the success of Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped had brought Stevenson great fame, and led his American publisher McClure to offer Stevenson $10,000 to write about the islands of either the Caribbean or the South Seas. Stevenson chose the South Seas and set sail with his family, eventually settling in Samoa, where he lived until his death in 1894. His dreams for this project were huge, and he felt it would be the best thing he wrote, and that it would be the best writing on the South Seas ever… Read More

Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable for Longmans, Green and Company, 1894. Few writers have during their lifetime commanded so much admiration and regard from their fellow-craftsmen Energy of vision goes hand in hand with magic of presentment, and both words and things acquire new meaning and a new vitality under his touch" (DNB).

STEVENSON, Robert Louis (1850-1894)
Autograph letter signed " Robert Louis Stevenson " to Hubert Smith-StainerEdinburgh, [Pitlochry, 6th June 1881], 3 pp. in-8°With autograph envelope
Long and beautiful Stevenson letter, from his native lands, evoking his difficult camps in California and the Cevennes
" Dear Sir,I received only a few days ago your long and interesting letter.I shall make it a point to see your book. I have since camped out in California, where things are mightily simplified by the absence of rain, but made more difficult by the rivers drying up. I recal some miseries after water to drink; and tracking with a compass through thick chapparal and chemise, did not always prove either easy or agreeable. But I was laid down with a fever, and passed some very melancholy nights, when I could not close an eye and could not tell whether I most disliked the glitter of the stars or the piercing cry of the crickets; and to have to cook one's food became quite impossible. That fever was the… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,, 1887. Presented to a fellow novelist First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "Dr S. Weir Mitchell, with the grateful good wishes of Robert Louis Stevenson", and with Mitchell's armorial bookplate loosely inserted. This is a fascinating presentation, revealing the important connections between science, medicine, and literature in the 1880s. The recipient, Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914), was an American physician and novelist. As a doctor, he made several important early contributions to neurology, pioneering the rest cure, "a method he developed in the early 1870s for the treatment of a variety of nervous conditions, emphasizing isolation, bed rest, and a rich but bland diet" (ANB). When he prescribed the rest cure to Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one of his patients, he provided the authoress with inspiration for her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", in which the narrator is driven mad after being confined to her bed. As a… Read More

London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1883. First edition, early issue. Very good.. First printing of this beloved tale of pirates and treasure maps, the touchstone for the modern concept of the peg-legged pirate with unexpected depth of character. With numerous film, TV, and theater adaptations that cast everyone from Orson Welles to Tim Curry and the Muppets as Long John Silver and company, the cultural reach of TREASURE ISLAND is extremely broad. Robert Louis Stevenson penned what would become his breakout success while recovering from one of his many illnesses, and it originally appeared serially in YOUNG FOLKS magazine. William Francis Prideaux observes that TREASURE ISLAND was "a comparative failure" in its serial form, and only found success when it was published as a complete work (27). Prideaux notes that TREASURE ISLAND was first issued in several different colors of cloth with no priority, however the first print run of 2000 copies was split into groups issued over a few months at the end… Read More

Sydney: [Privately printed], 1890. First edition, issued (according to Edmund Gosse) in an edition of 25 copies. At head of title: With Mr. R. L. Stevenson's Compliments. 32 pp. With holograph corrections on pp. 7, 13, and 20. 1 vols. 8vo. Original stapled self wrappers. Ink initials at head of title, L. v. F. Old folds, short tear and paper flaw to last leaf with small stain in margin, some toning and wear to foot of spine fold. Very good. Blue cloth chemise and slipcase. First edition, issued (according to Edmund Gosse) in an edition of 25 copies. At head of title: With Mr. R. L. Stevenson's Compliments. 32 pp. With holograph corrections on pp. 7, 13, and 20. 1 vols. 8vo. The Rare Sydney Printing. Father Damien, Damien de Veuster (1840-1889) was a Belgian missionary from Belgium who worked at the leper settlement at Molokai from 1873; he eventually contracted leprosy and died of it in 1889. Stevenson's polemic was written in response to a letter from Rev. C.M. Hyde of Honolulu, published in The… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus for the Florence Press, 1910. Limited Edition. Fine. Norman Wilkinson. 4to, 10 x 7 1/2 in. (253 x 189 mm); [6] leaves, including 1 blank + 120 pp + [2] leaves, including 1 blank. 12 chromolithographed plates by Norman Wilkinson, printed on plate paper and not included in the pagination, legends on tissue guards printed in red. This is COPY no. 4 OF 12 COPIES PRINTED ON VELLUM, as noted on the limitation page, on verso of second leaf: «Of this edition of Virginibus Puerisque / have been printed on Aldwych hand- / made paper 250 copies, of which 235 are / for sale; on vellum 12 copies, of which 10 / are for sale. / Vellum Copy No. 4». Limp vellum binding with four green ties; gilt lettering on spine and upper cover, t.e.g. Very faint spotting to front free endpaper, slight offsetting of ties. Otherwise a pristine copy. Provenance: William Russell Flint (from the family, by descent). [Beinecke, Stevenson 79; Ransom 278:6; Tomkinson 85:6; Prideaux 13]. A splendid edition of… Read More