Robert Louis Stevenson, long recognized as a master storyteller and essayist, was also one of the finest and most delightful of letter writers. Yale University Press is now publishing the definitive edition of Stevenson's collected letters in eight handsomely produced volumes. The edition will contain nearly 2,800 letters, only 1,100 of which have been published before.
Volumes III and IV cover the period from August 1879 to June 1884. The six hundred letters tell for the first time the full story of Stevenson's reckless journey to California as an "amateur emigrant," during which he...

The publication of Volumes VII and VIII completes this major edition of the letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, an edition comprising 2,800 letters, almost two-thirds of which have never been in print before.
These volumes contain some 560 letters that provide a vivid picture of the last four years of Stevenson's life, from 1890 to 1894. Stevenson spent these years in Samoa, where he had gone to improve his health. We learn a great deal about Stevenson's exile in Samoa: the early pioneering days during the establishment of the Vailima Plantation; his life as the head of a large household...