Evidence: | [On blank recto flyleaf at the beginning of the volume:] 'My Dear Brown,/ Here it is, with the mark of a San Francisco BOUQUINISTE. And if ever in all my "human conduct" I have done a better thing to any fellow-creature than handing on to you this sweet, dignified, and wholesome book, I know I shall hear of it on the last day. To write a book like this were impossible; at least one can hand it on − with a wrench − one to another. My wife cries out and my own heart misgives me, but still here it is. I could scarcely better prove myself − Yours affectionately,
R.L. Stevenson. [Later, placed on a blank recto page facing p.166, i.e. the last page of Fruits of Solitude and before Fruits of a Father’s Love:] My Dear Brown, / I hope if you get this far, you will know what an invaluable present I have made you. Even the copy was dear to me, printed in the colony that Penn established and carried in my pocket all about San Francisco streets, read in street cars and ferry boats, when I was sick unto death, and found in all times a peaceful and sweet companion. But I hope, when you shall have reached this note, my gift will not have been in vain; for while just now we are so busy and intelligent, there is not the man living, no, nor recently dead, that could have put, with so lovely a spirit, so much honest, kind wisdom into words. / R.L.S.'
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Century: | 1850-1899 | ||||||||||
Date: | Between 1 Jan 1879 and 31 Dec 1881 | ||||||||||
Country: | America | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | city: Mainly San Francisco? | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | Robert Louis Stevenson |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | 13 Nov 1850 |
Socio-economic group: | Professional / academic / merchant / farmer |
Occupation: | Writer |
Religion: | Uncommitted |
Country of origin: | Scotland |
Country of experience: | America |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | William Penn |
Title: | Fruits of Solitude |
Genre: | Personal reflections. |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | Published in Philadelphia by Benjamin Johnson in 1792. |
Provenance: | owned |
Record ID: | 20259 | |
Source - | Manuscript | Other |
Author: | Marginalia, |
Citation: | Marginalia, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=20259, accessed: 27 April 2024 |
The evidence is contained in two separate but related presentation inscriptions written by RLS in a copy of William Penn’s [italics]Fruits of Solitude, *expressed* in Reflections and Maxims relating to the Conduct of Human Life, by William Penn, Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792. This evidence was communicated to the contributor by Richard Dury, who obtained it from photographs of the volume in question, which is in the University of San Francisco Gleeson Library (Geschenke Center), USA. 1879-80. Olive Classe found the two passages in question on the Internet site of Fullbooks.com Homepage, given as from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, editor not named, the two passages being reproduced consecutively as Letters to Horatio F. Brown and dated Davos, 1881. The date of writing seems uncertain, apparently 1879-81. |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)