Fundamentals of Digital Scholarship: Robert Louis Stevenson's LettersMain MenuSir Arthur Conan DoyleA British writer who created the character Sherlock HolmesHenry JamesHenry James (1843-1916) was an American novelist and close friend to RLS.Andrew LangRLS correspondentFanny SitwellRudyard KiplingVisualizations
12019-10-03T17:20:38-04:00Fanny Sitwell8plain2019-10-03T17:35:25-04:00“My wife [Fanny] reminds me of an incident in point, from the youthful time when he used to make her the chief confidante to his troubles and touchstone of his tastes. One day he came to her with an early [. . .] volume of poems by Mr Robert Bridges, the present poet-laureate, in his hand; declared here was the most wonderful new genius, and enthusiastically read out to her some of the contents in evidence; till becoming aware that they were being coolly received, he leapt up crying, ‘My God! I believe you don’t like them’ – and flung the book across the room and himself out of the house in a paroxysm of disappointment – to return a few hours later and beg pardon humbly for his misbehaviour. But for some time afterwards, whenever he desired her judgement on work of his own or others, he would begin by bargaining: You won’t Bridges me this time, will you?” (Sidney Colvin, Memories and Notes of Persons and Places, 1851-1912 [London: E. Arnold, 1912], pp. 122-23)
