_"Q." is the signature of Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, born in
Cornwall in 1863. No English novelist of the present generation
upholds more evenly and consistently than he the best traditions of
the art of story-writing, both in elevation of theme and dignity of
style. His imagination attains the dramatic quality by strength and
purity rather than by eccentricity and abnormality. For these
reasons he was chosen to complete Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "St.
Ives," left unfinished on the death of the author._