A literary scoop: the passionate correspondence between R.L. Stevenson and J.M. Barrie

This book has appeared with no fuss or fanfare and yet by any account it is something of a scoop. For here, published for the first time, is the correspondence between J.M. Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson, revealing one of the most intriguing literary bromances of the 19th century.

The existence of the letters is well documented. In the early 1890s, gossip columns were agog with the news that two of the most popular writers of the day were corresponding, with Barrie reported to be writing ‘reams of letters’ to Stevenson. But while Stevenson’s letters to Barrie were published after the former’s death, Barrie’s letters to Stevenson never surfaced. It is thanks to their recent discovery by Michael Shaw, an academic at the University of Stirling, that we can now read the correspondence in full.

The first letter is dated February 1892, when Stevenson was at the height of his fame, while Barrie, ten years his junior, was already known for popular books such as The Little Minister, but yet to write Peter Pan.