£1,875
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 605
Auction: 17 June 2020 at 11:00 BST
to Mrs Burgess, written during the midst of creative turmoil ("... I am just now literally off my head with work, trying to make up for my six months uselessness. I am writing a story against time; and correcting the proofs of another....") and explaining that her tale still lies unopened upon his table ("... The day has no more than sixteen hours; and my strength will hardly suffer me to work for five; but one this story done [sic], I shall draw breath for a day or two, and turn to the roll that now menaces me for my neglect...") and begging her meanwhile to "accept this scratch", one page, oblong 8vo, central crease, partly laid-down on a sheet signed by members of Labour's post -war government, Skerryvore, Bournemouth, 12 November 1885
Note: Robert Louis Stevenson corrects the proofs of 'Jekyll and Hyde'.
This letter is addressed to Louisa Burgess, who had nursed him at Hyères in May 1884. He was at this time writing 'Olalla' and presumably reading proofs of Jekyll and possibly of 'Markham': see The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Booth and Mehew, v. 1995, where a slightly inaccurate text, taken from an earlier transcript, is published. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was to be published on 9 January 1886.