ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON'S EVOLUTIONARY WORDSWORTH

Abstract

While crediting William Wordsworth'stutelage in his 1887 essay “Books Which Have Influenced Me,” Robert Louis Stevenson indicates that the poet's contribution to his writing is difficult to pin down: “Wordsworth should perhaps come next. Every one has been influenced by Wordsworth and it is hard to tell precisely how” (164). Seeking to understand this relationship, I examined Stevenson's copy of Wordsworth'sThe Poetical Works(1858) at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Stevenson's penciled markings, cross-references, and annotations fill the six-volume set, indicating careful and repeated reading over many years. Stevenson purchased the edition as he was entering adulthood in Edinburgh, and kept it with him until the end of his life in Samoa. While Stevenson's marginalia cannot be precisely dated, the handwriting alongside Wordsworth's poetry ranges from the large sloped script of his early years (1870--1874) to the smaller, more rounded and upright letters he used in the final period of his life (1890–1894). Given this record and the frequency and depth of Stevenson's allusions to Wordsworth in his fiction, essays, and letters, it is surprising that no study of the relationship has been undertaken. In recent book-length studies of Romantic influences on Victorian writing, Stevenson is rarely mentioned, and never in connection with Wordsworth. Even Stephen Gill's encyclopedicWordsworth and the Victoriansmakes no reference to Stevenson.