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Stevenson, Robert Louis. Prayers written at Vailima /with an introduction by Mrs. Stevenson. First edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1905. Hardback, Good. Grey bords, bumped to corners and tanned around edges with red and black ornate lettering. Cloth spine with very minor damage to top and base. Binding good. Mild foxing to endpapers. 19pp., contents clean and bright. With my husband, prayer, the direct appeal, was a necessity. When he was happy he felt impelled to offer thanks for that undeserved joy; when in sorrow, or pain, to call for strength to bear what must be borne. Vailima lay up some three miles of continual rise from Apia, and more than half that distance from the nearest village. It was a long way for a tired man to walk down every evening with the sole purpose of joining in family worship; and the road through the bush was dark, and, to the Samoan imagination, beset with supernatural terrors. Wherefore, as soon as our household had fallen into a regular routine, and the bonds of Samoan family life began to draw us more closely together, Tusitala felt the necessity of including our retainers in our evening devotions. I suppose ours was the only white man's family in all Samoa, except those of the missionaries, where the day naturally ended with this homely, patriarchal custom. Not only were the religious scruples of the natives satisfied, but, what we did not foresee, our own respectability - and incidentally that of our retainers - became assured, and the influence of Tusitala increased tenfold (from the introduction). RightWayUp Books aims to provide accurate and detailed descriptions. All images are of the actual book for sale - no stock images are ever used. Thank you for looking at this listing. Seller Inventory # ABE-1685815180191
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