STEVENSON, Robert Louis.

£60,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

An Inland Voyage. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his mother on the half-title. A pioneering work of outdoor literature, Stevenson's first book is a travelogue about a canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. The first edition carries no printed dedication, but in his long inscription Stevenson declares this to be the de facto dedication copy.His inscription reads in full: "My dear Mother, May I present you with an unworthy grandchild? I am sure it would have been fifty times better, if I had been fifty times liker you; and I am sure, if it had been a hundred times worse, you would have given it a kind welcome for my sake. So be it in this, and in all. To you and my dear father be the dedication, for what it is worth of this book; if it offends anywhere, think what charity you have for my offences; if anywhere it pleases you, let me have a share of the gratitude. And above all things, my dear mother, put away this copy; and understand all that I have written upon it here, in the sense in which it was intended, and so, with my dearest love, believe me, your loving child, the Author. Swanston Cottage, May 1878."Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson (1829-1897) gave birth to RLS, her only child, in Edinburgh in 1850. RLS was a late reader, learning at the age of seven or eight, but "even before he could write Stevenson was dictating stories to his mother and his nurse. When he was six he won a prize, given by an uncle, for his 'History of Mose

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