Mr Edmund Gosse has been so good as to set down, with rather an air of
too much authority, that both R. L. Stevenson and I deceived ourselves
completely in the matter of my little share in the _Treasure Island_
business, and that too much credit was sought by me or given to me, for
the little service I rendered to R. L. Stevenson, and to the world, say,
in helping to secure for it an element of pleasure through many
generations. I have not _sought_ any recognition from the world in this
matter, and even the mention of it became so intolerable to me that I
eschewed all writing about it, in the face of the most stupid and
misleading statements, till Mr Sidney Colvin wrote and asked me to set
down my account of the matter in my own words. This I did, as it would
have been really rude to refuse a request so graciously made, and the
reader has it in the _Academy_ of 10th March 1900. Nevertheless, Mr
Gosse's statements were revived and quoted, and the thing seemed ever to
revolve again in a round of controversy.
Now, with regard to the reliability in this matter of Mr Edmund Gosse,
let me copy here a little note made at request some time ago, dealing
with two points. The first is this:
1. _Most assuredly_ I carried away from Braemar in my portmanteau, as R.
L. Stevenson says in _Idler's_ article and in chapter of _My First Book_
reprinted in _Edinburgh Edition_, several chapters of _Treasure Island_.
On that point R. L. Stevenson, myself, and Mr James Henderson, to whom I
took these, could not all be wrong and co-operating to mislead the
public. These chapters, at least vii. or viii., as Mr Henderson
remembers, would include the _first three_, that is, _finally revised
versions for press_. Mr Gosse could not then _have heard R. L. Stevenson
read from these final versions but from first draughts_ ONLY, and I am
positively certain that with some of the later chapters R. L. Stevenson
wrote them off-hand, and with great ease, and did not revise them to the
extent of at all needing to re-write them, as I remember he was proud to
tell me, being then fully in the vein, as he put it, and pleased to
credit me with a share in this good result, and saying "my enthusiasm
over it had set him up steep." There was then, in my idea, a necessity
that Stevenson should fill up a gap by verbal summary to Mr Gosse (which
Mr Gosse has forgotten), bringing the incident up to a further point than
Mr Gosse now thinks. I am certain of my facts under this head; and as Mr
Gosse clearly fancies he heard R. L. Stevenson read all from final
versions and is mistaken--_completely_ mistaken there--he may be just as
wrong and the victim of error or bad memory elsewhere after the lapse of
more than twenty years.
2. I gave the pencilled outline of incident and plot to Mr Henderson--a
fact he distinctly remembers. This fact completely meets and disposes of
Mr Robert Leighton's quite imaginative _Billy Bo'sun_ notion, and is
absolute as to R. L. Stevenson before he left Braemar on the 21st
September 1881, or even before I left it on 26th August 1881, having
clear in his mind the whole scheme of the work, though we know very well
that the absolute re-writing out finally for press of the concluding part
of the book was done at Davos. Mr Henderson has always made it the
strictest rule in his editorship that the complete outline of the plot
and incident of the latter part of a story must be supplied to him, if
the whole story is not submitted to him in MS.; and the agreement, if I
am not much mistaken, was entered into days before R. L. Stevenson left
Braemar, and when he came up to London some short time after to go to
Weybridge, the only arrangement then needed to be made was about the
forwarding of proofs to him.
The publication of _Treasure Island_ in _Young Folks_ began on the 1st
October 1881, No. 565 and ran on in the following order:
_October_ 1, 1881.
THE PROLOGUE
No. 565.
I. The Old Sea Dog at the Admiral Benbow.
II. Black Dog Appears and Disappears.
No. 566.
Dated _October_ 8, 1881.
III. The Black Spot.
No. 567.
Dated _October_ 15, 1881.
IV. The Sea Chart.
V. The Last of the Blind Man.
VI. The Captain's Papers.
No. 568.
Dated _October_ 22, 1881.
THE STORY
I. I go to Bristol.
II. The Sea-Cook.
Ill. Powder and Arms.
Now, as the numbers of _Young Folks_ were printed about a fortnight in
advance of the date they bear under the title, it is clear that not only
must the contract have been executed days before the middle of September,
but that a large proportion of the _copy_ must have been in Mr
Henderson's hands at that date too, as he must have been entirely
satisfied that the story would go on and be finished in a definite time.
On no other terms would he have begun the publication of it. He was not
in the least likely to have accepted a story from a man who, though known
as an essayist, had not yet published anything in the way of a long
story, on the ground merely of three chapters of prologue. Mr Gosse left
Braemar on 5th September, when he says nine chapters were written, and Mr
Henderson had offered terms for the story before the last of these could
have reached him. That is on seeing, say six chapters of prologue. But
when Mr Gosse speaks about three chapters only written, does he mean
three of the prologue or three of the story, in addition to prologue, or
what does he mean? The facts are clear. I took away in my portmanteau a
large portion of the MS., together with a very full outline of the rest
of the story, so that Mr Stevenson was, despite Mr Gosse's cavillings,
_substantially_ right when he wrote in _My First Book_ in the _Idler_,
etc., that "when he (Dr Japp) left us he carried away the manuscript in
his portmanteau." There was nothing of the nature of an abandonment of
the story at any point, nor any difficulty whatever arose in this respect
in regard to it.