Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 12847

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'I have just returned from reading a chapter of your book to my wife and her daughter. There was not a dry eye at the table, and the reader had to suspend operations, choking upon sobs. They were tears of pride and sympathy. I beg to offer you this family anecdote as a testimony to the success of your reminiscences. Of making books there is said to be no end, and I have made many. But if I could only think once, before I died, that I had given so much and such noble pleasure to a reader, I should be more than rewarded. You have made me proud and glad to be a Scotsman.'
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Between 19 May 1894 and 21 May 1894
Country: Samoa
Time: n/a
Place: specific address: 'Vailima', Samoa
location in dwelling: Dining room
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

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: Chruch of Scotland
Country of origin: Scotland
Country of experience: Samoa
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
Fanny Stevenson and Isobel Strong. Possibly Austin Strong (Isobel's son) was also present.
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: William Forbes-Mitchell
Title: Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny 1857-9
Genre: History, Autobiog / Diary, Memoir and Military History
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: London: Macmillan, 1894. First edition.
Provenance: owned

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 12847  
  Source - Manuscript
  Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
  Title: Letter to William Forbes-Mitchell, dated 21 May 1894
  Location: ALS, Beinecke Special Collections, Yale University
  Call no: n/a
  Page/folio: n/a

Citation: Robert Louis Stevenson, Letter to William Forbes-Mitchell, dated 21 May 1894 ALS, Beinecke Special Collections, Yale University, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=12847, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

Stevenson's copy of Forbes-Mitchell's 'Reminiscences' is in the Stevenson Collection in the Beinecke Library, Yale University; call mark IpSt48Zz7908. The volume is heavily marked in pencil in the margins. The frontispiece contains the following statement in the hand of Stevenson's step-grandson, Austin Strong: 'This book has a value as R.L.S. use [sic] to read it to us all at Vailima.'

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)