Page:A bibliography of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson.djvu/21

Rh Chevalier, and Heathercat, have been printed in the 'Edinburgh Edition,' and there are no materials from which to add to the bibliographical information given regarding them by Mr. Colvin and Mr. Lang. But the Letters and the Life are full of allusions to other projected works round which the lightning mind of Stevenson played for a shorter or longer period. Essays on Benjamin Franklin and the Art of Virtue, on William Penn, on Three Sea Fortalices, the two Mounts of St. Michael and the Bass Rock; biographies of Hazlitt and the Duke of Wellington; fantastic stories like those included in The Black Man or Tales for Winter Nights; longer tales like The Hair Trunk; or, The Ideal Commonwealth, of which the manuscript is still in existence; romances like A Vendetta in the West or Jerry Abershaw, Sophia Scarlet or The Shovels of Newton French; a dozen plays planned in collaboration with Mr. W. E. Henley; all of these engaged the mind of Stevenson at various dates, and prove the range and versatility of his fancy.

In conclusion, I must express my obligations to various friends who have assisted me in the compilation of this book: to Mr. Thomas J. Wise, whose materials for a Bibliography of Stevenson were generously placed at my disposal; to Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mr. Sidney Colvin, Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, Mr. W. B. Blaikie, Mr. George M. Williamson, and Mr. W. MacDonald Mackay; to Mrs. Katherine de Mattos, Mrs. iMargaret Hamilton McElroy, and Miss Carolyn Shipman, to all of whom I am indebted for valuable information; to Mr. W. C. Beetonson, who has assisted me in the collation Rh