The 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

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

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).