What do you think?
Rate this book
A Friendship in Letters: Robert Louis Stevenson & J.M. Barrie
Until a few years ago, J.M. Barrie’s manuscript letters to Robert Louis Stevenson were presumed lost.
Since Michael Shaw discovered them, he has been enchanted by the correspondence, and has now compiled this first ever edition bringing both writers’ letters together. The introduction to this fascinating exchange shows why they developed such an intense bond (despite never meeting) and the deep impact their correspondence had on Barrie’s life and work.
Since Michael Shaw discovered them, he has been enchanted by the correspondence, and has now compiled this first ever edition bringing both writers’ letters together. The introduction to this fascinating exchange shows why they developed such an intense bond (despite never meeting) and the deep impact their correspondence had on Barrie’s life and work.
- GenresNonfiction
244 pages, Hardcover
First published November 13, 2020
1 person is currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Michael Shaw
5 books2 followersMichael Shaw is Lecturer in Scottish Literature at the University of Stirling.
Shaw completed a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow in 2015. His doctoral research, which examined how the styles and ideas of the 1890s supported a Fin de Siècle Scottish cultural revival, has subsequently been published as The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity (2019).
Shaw completed a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow in 2015. His doctoral research, which examined how the styles and ideas of the 1890s supported a Fin de Siècle Scottish cultural revival, has subsequently been published as The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity (2019).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 1, 2020
”You take the boat at San Francisco, and then my place is the second on the left.”---Robert Louis Stevenson
This was a plea from a letter that Stevenson sent to J. M. Barrie, one of the many times that he asked Barrie to come to Samoa. Barrie always said that one of his most famous quotes,“Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning, ” was inspired by this very line from Stevenson. They were the best of friends via the social media of the day...the exchanging of letters. I’ve made many really good friends on Goodreads, and most of them I’ve never met and I may never, but I still value their friendship as much as if we were mates able to meet down at the local pub to discuss life and books, and books and life. As I read through their jocular letters to one another, it became clear that the two men were soul mates, not romantically, although Barrie does say at one point teasingly: :”To be blunt I have discovered (have suspected it for some time) that I love you, and if you had been a woman---.” He left the thought unfinished, but it certainly attests to the depths of their feelings for one another. I can see Stevenson smiling as he read that flirtatious line and thinking that he felt the same.
Stevenson tried everything to get Barrie to come visit him on his grand estate, Valimia, in the South Pacific. ”The fatted bottle should be immediately slain in the halls of Vailima.” What conversations would they have had? What novels would have been inspired by their close proximity to one another? Would they have collaborated? I think that, if Stevenson would have met Barrie while in Scotland, he might not have been able to leave Barrie to move to the very edge of the world. Stevenson was seeking relief for his poor health and had left everything behind to try and find better health in the tropical splendor of Samoa. Barrie wanted to come visit, but he was devoted to his aging mother, and every time he contemplated leaving her, he couldn’t bear the thought. They also both felt they had plenty of time. After all, they were still young men and two of the most celebrated Scottish writers. There was foreshadowing when Stevenson wrote to Barrie to say that his friend must come soon. ”I am sair failed already.” Stevenson had suffered several near death experiences with hemorrhaging lungs throughout his life, but had been enjoying relatively good health in Samoa. Regardless, the specter of death was an old friend who rarely left the corners of his mind.
It was hoped that living in the mild climate of the South Seas would extend RLS’s life, but in 1894 he was making a salad with his wife Fanny and suddenly clutched his head in pain and died. I’ve also heard that he was pulling the cork on a bottle of wine when this happened, which has a bit more flare to it. He was forty-four. He was in the middle of writing the Weir of Hermiston, which many critics felt would be his greatest novel. They also said the same thing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald also died suddenly at forty-four. Maybe what we want to see in these unfinished books is unrealized masterpieces. To believe it to be true adds an extra layer of poignancy and tragedy to our loss. I believe that both writers were on the verge of transitioning to new and exciting eras of their careers.
Needless to say, J. M. Barrie was devastated to hear the news of his friend’s untimely death. He wrote a poetic ode to him and was instrumental in having the medallion relief of Stevenson placed in St. Giles Church in Edinburgh. He even scripted a story where he entered the world of make believe, a world he was very familiar with usually in the company of his greatest creation, Peter Pan. In this story he tells a tale of a night of drinking and elevated conversation with a strange man. ”I had no idea of his name, nor would it have conveyed much to me, but I always longed to meet him again however risky it might have been, and I searched for him and for a velvet coat (for I suppose he had more than one). I remembered him as The man in the velvet coat until years afterwards, when I saw his portrait in a newspaper, and discovered that my friend of a night had been no other than Robert Louis Stevenson.”
So the reason that this collection is important, beyond just the fact that it confirms the wonderful friendship between these two Scots, is that Barrie’s letters to Stevenson had been presumed to be lost, well unlocatable, but feared to be lost for good. Barrie was unsettled at even the thought that Stevenson may have tossed his letters, but at the same time, he knew that couldn’t be true. It was a mystery until Michael Shaw unearthed them. What was lost is now found, and now that they are published, they can never be lost again.
It is always nice to spend some time with my old friend Robert Louis Stevenson, and it was a special treat making a better acquaintance of J. M. Barrie. His letters have even inspired me to finally read Peter Pan. Donna Tartt called them ”twinned writers”. They were certainly like-minded, and Barrie’s youthful exuberance surely helped relight the fire in Stevenson’s belly. I do wonder how different their lives and their writing might have been if they had met in the flesh. Each a person who in their darkest days would have understood each other completely. Someone with whom they could confide with full confidence and know without a shadow of a doubt that their most precious thoughts would remain secret. That would have been priceless indeed.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
This was a plea from a letter that Stevenson sent to J. M. Barrie, one of the many times that he asked Barrie to come to Samoa. Barrie always said that one of his most famous quotes,“Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning, ” was inspired by this very line from Stevenson. They were the best of friends via the social media of the day...the exchanging of letters. I’ve made many really good friends on Goodreads, and most of them I’ve never met and I may never, but I still value their friendship as much as if we were mates able to meet down at the local pub to discuss life and books, and books and life. As I read through their jocular letters to one another, it became clear that the two men were soul mates, not romantically, although Barrie does say at one point teasingly: :”To be blunt I have discovered (have suspected it for some time) that I love you, and if you had been a woman---.” He left the thought unfinished, but it certainly attests to the depths of their feelings for one another. I can see Stevenson smiling as he read that flirtatious line and thinking that he felt the same.
Stevenson tried everything to get Barrie to come visit him on his grand estate, Valimia, in the South Pacific. ”The fatted bottle should be immediately slain in the halls of Vailima.” What conversations would they have had? What novels would have been inspired by their close proximity to one another? Would they have collaborated? I think that, if Stevenson would have met Barrie while in Scotland, he might not have been able to leave Barrie to move to the very edge of the world. Stevenson was seeking relief for his poor health and had left everything behind to try and find better health in the tropical splendor of Samoa. Barrie wanted to come visit, but he was devoted to his aging mother, and every time he contemplated leaving her, he couldn’t bear the thought. They also both felt they had plenty of time. After all, they were still young men and two of the most celebrated Scottish writers. There was foreshadowing when Stevenson wrote to Barrie to say that his friend must come soon. ”I am sair failed already.” Stevenson had suffered several near death experiences with hemorrhaging lungs throughout his life, but had been enjoying relatively good health in Samoa. Regardless, the specter of death was an old friend who rarely left the corners of his mind.
It was hoped that living in the mild climate of the South Seas would extend RLS’s life, but in 1894 he was making a salad with his wife Fanny and suddenly clutched his head in pain and died. I’ve also heard that he was pulling the cork on a bottle of wine when this happened, which has a bit more flare to it. He was forty-four. He was in the middle of writing the Weir of Hermiston, which many critics felt would be his greatest novel. They also said the same thing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald also died suddenly at forty-four. Maybe what we want to see in these unfinished books is unrealized masterpieces. To believe it to be true adds an extra layer of poignancy and tragedy to our loss. I believe that both writers were on the verge of transitioning to new and exciting eras of their careers.
Needless to say, J. M. Barrie was devastated to hear the news of his friend’s untimely death. He wrote a poetic ode to him and was instrumental in having the medallion relief of Stevenson placed in St. Giles Church in Edinburgh. He even scripted a story where he entered the world of make believe, a world he was very familiar with usually in the company of his greatest creation, Peter Pan. In this story he tells a tale of a night of drinking and elevated conversation with a strange man. ”I had no idea of his name, nor would it have conveyed much to me, but I always longed to meet him again however risky it might have been, and I searched for him and for a velvet coat (for I suppose he had more than one). I remembered him as The man in the velvet coat until years afterwards, when I saw his portrait in a newspaper, and discovered that my friend of a night had been no other than Robert Louis Stevenson.”
So the reason that this collection is important, beyond just the fact that it confirms the wonderful friendship between these two Scots, is that Barrie’s letters to Stevenson had been presumed to be lost, well unlocatable, but feared to be lost for good. Barrie was unsettled at even the thought that Stevenson may have tossed his letters, but at the same time, he knew that couldn’t be true. It was a mystery until Michael Shaw unearthed them. What was lost is now found, and now that they are published, they can never be lost again.
It is always nice to spend some time with my old friend Robert Louis Stevenson, and it was a special treat making a better acquaintance of J. M. Barrie. His letters have even inspired me to finally read Peter Pan. Donna Tartt called them ”twinned writers”. They were certainly like-minded, and Barrie’s youthful exuberance surely helped relight the fire in Stevenson’s belly. I do wonder how different their lives and their writing might have been if they had met in the flesh. Each a person who in their darkest days would have understood each other completely. Someone with whom they could confide with full confidence and know without a shadow of a doubt that their most precious thoughts would remain secret. That would have been priceless indeed.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
Read
December 23, 2020Disappointing!
February 11, 2021
I LOVED this book. As someone who studied both of these writers at university, I thought there was little I didn't know about them, and boy was I wrong! This is an intimate, humorous, whimsical collection of insights into both personalities and I know tem and love them better for having read it! Excellent and highly recommended.
December 29, 2020
Stevenson and Barrie – both young Scotsmen, alumni of the University of Edinburgh, and writers of novels for children. They struck up an unusual friendship in that they never met in person. Stevenson had moved to Samoa for health reasons, and Barrie never managed to leave his elderly mother to go visit him. And of course, Stevenson died at 44, so there wasn’t enough time.
But this meant that their friendship developed through these letters – 16 of which have been included in this volume by Michael Shaw. In it, they talk about their works, characters, and the lives they were leading. Barrie was enamoured by Stevenson – not only did he borrow names and mannerisms from the latter’s characters; but he also devised ingenious ways in which their characters might be family to one another. He was also effusive in his praise (and his love) for Stevenson’s literary genius.
Their real-life families feature too. Stevenson’s entire household is part of some letters and Barrie sometimes writes a line or two to each, individually. Barrie, in turn, writed about his mother and also his famous cricket team ‘Allahakbarries.’ This, of course, was the team that included literary greats like Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, A. A. Milne amongst others.
Reading all of this provides the background to the thinking behind some of my all-time favourite characters in literature. And this is a well-written and beautifully presented work.
(More reviews: https://cupandchaucer.wordpress.com/)
But this meant that their friendship developed through these letters – 16 of which have been included in this volume by Michael Shaw. In it, they talk about their works, characters, and the lives they were leading. Barrie was enamoured by Stevenson – not only did he borrow names and mannerisms from the latter’s characters; but he also devised ingenious ways in which their characters might be family to one another. He was also effusive in his praise (and his love) for Stevenson’s literary genius.
Their real-life families feature too. Stevenson’s entire household is part of some letters and Barrie sometimes writes a line or two to each, individually. Barrie, in turn, writed about his mother and also his famous cricket team ‘Allahakbarries.’ This, of course, was the team that included literary greats like Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, A. A. Milne amongst others.
Reading all of this provides the background to the thinking behind some of my all-time favourite characters in literature. And this is a well-written and beautifully presented work.
(More reviews: https://cupandchaucer.wordpress.com/)
September 24, 2025
I ordered this book blindly from a used book website in early 2024. As a devoted fan of both Robert Louis Stevenson's works and J.M. Barrie's, I was hooked (pun intended) by the contents of these personal letters as soon as I received my copy in the mail. For several weeks, I took this volume everywhere that I went when I knew I would have some time to make myself cozy in its pages.
The main draw of this novel rests squarely on the undeniable charm of Barrie and Stevenson's working friendship. As a writer myself, I appreciated the invaluable experience of finding a fellow writer who not only understands your work, your worlds of fantasy, but also takes great joy in discussing those worlds in depth. Barrie and Stevenson found this bond with each other, a world apart, having never met in person. In a way, it's almost a modern friendship in the age of technology, though these letters were sent by ship on long distance and not by the internet.
The latter parts of the novel written to explain the rest of Barrie and Stevenson's history after the final letter in this collection had me struggling to hold back tears on an airplane. I'm admittedly not as well studied in this part of their history and the revelations here have broken some part of my heart forever in cruel sympathy. All in all, an amazing book and one that I'm proud to have in my library. It is well assembled and the story of Barrie and Stevenson's friendship is undoubtedly a moving one.
The main draw of this novel rests squarely on the undeniable charm of Barrie and Stevenson's working friendship. As a writer myself, I appreciated the invaluable experience of finding a fellow writer who not only understands your work, your worlds of fantasy, but also takes great joy in discussing those worlds in depth. Barrie and Stevenson found this bond with each other, a world apart, having never met in person. In a way, it's almost a modern friendship in the age of technology, though these letters were sent by ship on long distance and not by the internet.
The latter parts of the novel written to explain the rest of Barrie and Stevenson's history after the final letter in this collection had me struggling to hold back tears on an airplane. I'm admittedly not as well studied in this part of their history and the revelations here have broken some part of my heart forever in cruel sympathy. All in all, an amazing book and one that I'm proud to have in my library. It is well assembled and the story of Barrie and Stevenson's friendship is undoubtedly a moving one.
April 18, 2025
Read in one reading! Utterly stunned to find this lost treasure in the library!
But utterly adored this bromance in letters!
But utterly adored this bromance in letters!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews