STEVENSON, Robert Louis (1850-1894). Author.
Autograph Letter Signed to Miss [Mary] Carmichael, 1 page small 4to, no date (ca 1885). Relating to the negotiations for Miss Carmichael to set to music and publish a number of Stevenson's songs.

'This is a matter which I must leave to my publishers, Messrs Longman & Co, to whom I have forwarded your letter and to whom I beg to refer you for an answer. Will you let me add, in all gentleness, that your proposal to illustrate the verses seems to me excessive? ...'

This was a particularly fruitful period in Stevenson's career. He had just published A Child's Garden of Verses - which is probably the subject of these negotiations - and was shortly to follow it with Mannheim, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The ill health that was to bring his life to an untimely end made this industry all the more remarkable.
Mary Carmichael was a prolific composer of songs, as well as an accompanist.
Together with the copy of a memorandum presumably by Mary Carmichael 'Copy of the interview with Mr R.L. Stevenson', 1½ pages 4to, explaining the background to the matter, and quoting Stevenson's comments and replies to her questions as well as his remarks on his now chronic ill-health.
Mary Carmichael seems not to have been noticed by any of Stevenson's major biographers, and she is not mentioned in the index to The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed. Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew (1994-1995).
Provenance: Carmichael family papers.

£2250 [No: 22441]