Excerpt from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vol. 1: To His Family and Friends Spondence which came in from various quarters turned out much larger than had been anticipated, and the labour Of sifting and arranging it much greater. The author of Treasure Island and Across tbe Plains and Weir of Hernzz'ston did not love writing letters, and will be found somewhere in the following pages refer ring to himself as one essentially and originally in capable Of the art epistolary. That he was a bad correspondent had even come to be an accepted View among his friends; but in truth it was only during one particular period Of his life (see below, vol. I. P. II7) that he at all deserved such a reproach. At other times, as is now apparent, he had Shown a degree of industry and spirit in letter-writing extraordinary considering his health and occupations, and especially considering his declared aversion for the task. His letters, it is true, were Often the most informal in the world, and he gen erally neglected to date them, a habit which is the de Spair of editors; but after his own whim and fashion he wrote a vast number; so that for every one here included some halfa dozen at least have had to be rejected. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.