Collected Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson

At last -- a complete new edition of the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson. During his lifetime Stevenson published A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), Penny Whistles, Underwoods (1887) and Ballads (1890). There were also various private press adventures in poetry with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, and the posthumous Songs of Travel (1895), and New Poems (1918). This new edition contains these collections and also some of Stevenson's printed and manuscript poems that have never been published in any collection. The edition also identifies and restores various poems assembled by Stevenson in his Notebooks, many of which were mutilated by members of The Boston Bibliophile Society. The editor, Roger Lewis, has carefully studied Stevenson's manuscripts and letters, identifying many variants in individual poems and in orders of his collections, as well as in the editorial procedures of a succession of RLS's literary associates who claimed to be fulfilling his intentions or acting on his authority. The ordering of this edition will follow Stevenson's own final arrangement over unauthorised editorial rearrangments or strict considerations of chronology.Complete and accurate dates of composition and publication of individual poems and of collections are given wherever possible. Appendices include bibliographical description and location for manuscript and printed sources of all poems in the edition; 'poems in process' - how Stevenson sketched and revised during composition; notebooks - bibliographical history and significance; chronology and ordonnance of poetic units. There are also explanatory and textual notes. Scots poems are glossed and annotated using The Concise Scots Dictionary and web resources of the SNDA. A substantial introduction covers the publishing histories of individual volumes and literary influences, placing emphasis on Stevenson as a Scottish poet and arguing for his best verse to be considered as good as his best fiction. Key Features: * The only available edition of RLS's complete poems * Includes poems never previously published * Restores poems from RLS's notebooks mutilated by The Boston Bibliophile Society * Offers fully-edited critical texts with scholarly apparatus * Includes A Child's Garden of Verses, Penny Whistles, Underwoods, Songs of Travel, Pieces in Lallan and Poems Written in America

Shows a writer without his public mask, reacting delicately, sensitively, to the world around him. This is a braw wark eidentlie editit an it taks in a whein o poems never publisht afore. A new Collected Poems which is likely to prove the last word... Half of the book is taken up with commentary and notes; every detectable variant of every poem is given...Information on printings, first and subsequent editions, publishers' advances, rare Stevensoniana and much else is provided in abundance...the new Collected Poems is indispensable. This new anthology of RLS poetry will come as a delightful surprise to many! it brings a freshness to the work of a great writer who lived in an era of high romanticism. There is a very real need for this book! it should not only fill an obvious void in Stevenson studies but also generate considerable interest among Stevenson scholars who themselves must reconsider RLS's reputation as a poet. -- Professor Wendy Katz, Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia Shows a writer without his public mask, reacting delicately, sensitively, to the world around him. This is a braw wark eidentlie editit an it taks in a whein o poems never publisht afore. A new Collected Poems which is likely to prove the last word... Half of the book is taken up with commentary and notes; every detectable variant of every poem is given...Information on printings, first and subsequent editions, publishers' advances, rare Stevensoniana and much else is provided in abundance...the new Collected Poems is indispensable. This new anthology of RLS poetry will come as a delightful surprise to many! it brings a freshness to the work of a great writer who lived in an era of high romanticism. There is a very real need for this book! it should not only fill an obvious void in Stevenson studies but also generate considerable interest among Stevenson scholars who themselves must reconsider RLS's reputation as a poet.

Roger Lewis was formerly Professor of English at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada. Author of Poems and Drawings of Elizabeth Siddal (The Wombat Press, 1978) and Thomas James Wise and the Trial Book Fallacy (Scolar Press, 1995).