Findlay Kirsty Nichol - Arthur Ransomes Long-Lost Study of Robert Louis Stevenson

Arthur Ransomes
Long-Lost Study of
Robert Louis Stevenson

This is the first publication of a remarkable book by Arthur Ransome, originally commissioned in 1910. The manuscript, nearly complete, was sequestered by Ransomes wife in 1914, and he never saw it again. It came to light only by chance, long after his death.

Arthur Ransome here gives an exceptionally personal and perceptive account of the strengths and weaknesses of Stevenson as man and writer. Writing when most books on Stevenson were biographical or merely adulatory, he intended his to be the first critical study. The result is a fascinating and eager exposition by a yet-to-become-novelist of the writer who was to remain a lifelong inspiration. Here he wrestles to identify techniques that later underpin his Swallows and Amazons . Moreover, this is the only manuscript first draft of a work by Ransome to survive, and as such provides a unique insight into his working methods.

The appendices include all other extant material relating to Stevenson by Ransome, from his very first story (written at the age of eight, and hitherto published only privately) to working notes and articles in literary periodicals. The editors substantial introduction gives a full account of the extraordinary history of the manuscripts development, disappearance, and rediscovery, and adds a new and enlightening chapter to the tumultuous story of Ransomes first marriage, early career, and escape to Russia.

Editorial matter Kirsty Nichol Findlay 2011
Manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson: A Critical Study
The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

All Rights Reserved . Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner

First published 2011
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
This edition published 2014

ISBN 978 1 84383 672 8 (Hardback)
ISBN 978 1 78204 444 4 (eBook)

The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mount Hope Ave, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Based upon the original design by
David Roberts, Pershore, Worcestershire

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A TEXTUAL MATERIAL

Photo: Tsendpurev Tsegmid. Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced by courtesy of The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, Kendal, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced by courtesy of The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, Kendal, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library [ L900.c.172 ]

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Photo: Getty Images

Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and by permission of The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

National Portrait Gallery, London

Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library [ Lit.6.90.753772 ]

National Portrait Gallery, London

In memory of David Ian Sewart
19442008

Few tasks can be as enjoyable as one which yokes together writers as profoundly interesting and engaging as Arthur Ransome and Robert Louis Stevenson. For my love of both authors I am indebted to my parents, Jeanie and Stan Northcote-Bade, who told me that I spoke my first words by joining in a Stevenson poem which they were reading to me. I am enormously grateful to Arthur Ransomes literary executor Christina Hardyment and her co-executors Elizabeth Sewart and Geraint Lewis who entrusted me with Ransomes Stevenson manuscript and let me get on with it. I am above all indebted to the encouragement and assistance of Brian Findlay, whose many suggestions for improvements have all been adopted, and to Roger Savage, without whose urgings-on, constant support and careful reading this book might never have reached its publisher. I am grateful to the Red Slipper Fund of The Arthur Ransome Society for a grant towards illustrations.

In working on Ransomes manuscript over several years I am specifically indebted to the meticulous research of the bibliographer Wayne G. Hammond, whose Arthur Ransome: A Bibliography (2000) (and its on-line supplements) has been at my elbow throughout; to the masterly and very readable biography by the historian Hugh Brogan, The Life of Arthur Ransome (1984); to Ransomes own un-put-downable Autobiography, completed by his editor, friend and literary executor Rupert Hart-Davis (1976); and to the racy story of Ransome in Russia, The Last Englishman by Roland Chambers (2009). Ransomes unpublished letters, diaries, notebooks and draft manuscript and typescript papers in the archives of the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds and at the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, Kendal have been a major source of new information and corroborative detail, as have letters by Ransome in private ownership. For Robert Louis Stevenson studies, the first resource for anyone these days must be the massive and impressive academic website maintained by Richard Dury and colleagues, w.w.w.robert-louis-stevenson.org. Writers on Stevenson whose work I have read or reread with enjoyment for this project include Richard Ambrosini, Oliver S. Buckton, Jenni Calder, Richard Dury, Claire Harman, Paul Maixner and Roger G. Swearingen. The standard eight-volume Yale edition of Stevensons letters by B. A. Booth and Ernest Mehew, The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (19945) has been a constant point of reference.

I am indebted to many librarians, archivists, and specialist academics, historians, and others with expert knowledge for help with general and specific queries. Ann Farr, formerly of Special Collections at the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds, Margaret Ratcliffe, librarian and archivist of The Arthur Ransome Society Library, and Ted Alexander, historian and archivist of Ransome and Walker material, have been continuously helpful and I am extremely indebted to their generosity and expertise. I am grateful to Ann and Mike Farr for having me as their guest while I was reading at the Brotherton. I am grateful to the hard-working staff of Special Collections at the Brotherton Library, including Chris Sheppard, Kasia Drozdziak, Karen Mee, and Tsendpurev Tsegmid (who took photographs used in this book) and, especially for help with things Russian, to Richard Davies. At the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, Abbot Hall, Kendal, I am particularly grateful to James Arnold. I am grateful to the hospitable Cambridge University Library and its generous and ever-helpful staff.