Robert Louis Stevenson's early work appeared in fugitive form
in magazines and reviews and even after he had written _The
New Arabian Nights_ and _Travels With a Donkey_ he was forced
to see such excellent matter as _The Silverado Squatters_ cut
up into magazine articles and more than half of it discarded.
The vogue of Stevenson was greater in this country than in
England until he had fully established his reputation. In 1878
_An Inland Voyage_ appeared and in 1879 _Travels With a
Donkey_, but it was not until 1883 that _Treasure Island_ made
him well known. The standard edition of Stevenson is the
Thistle edition, beautifully printed and illustrated, and
issued at Edinburgh and New York, 1894-1898. _The Letters of
Stevenson to His Family_, originally issued in 1899, have now
been incorporated with _Vailima Letters_ and issued in four
volumes. They are arranged chronologically, with admirable
biographical commentary by Sydney Colvin, to whom a great part
of them was written. Stevenson's personality was so attractive
that a mass of reminiscence and comment has been produced
since his death in 1894. The best books are Graham Balfour,
_Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_; Walter Raleigh, _R.L.
Stevenson_; Simpson, _Stevenson's Edinburgh Days_, and
_Memoirs of Vailima_, by Isobel Strong and Lloyd Osbourne, the
novelist's stepchildren. Henry James in _Partial Portraits_
has a fine appreciation of Stevenson and _Robert Louis
Stevenson in California_, by Katharine D. Osbourne is rich in
reminiscence.