"Payn showed me yesterday an article of yours upon a Miss Grant of whom I confess, I have heard for the first time; but I thought the whole really well written & feel that you will be able to command a market for such wares & in better periodicals (if I may say so) than London."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical
"I may tell you that, although your Hospital Sonnets did not seem to attract much notice at the time, as, indeed, I always thought them rather wasted on a Magazine - yet I have heard them noticed since by more than one person in a way that would please you. A friend who called here two days ago appeared to have them by heart - at least he quoted the one about the two boys with great readiness of feeling."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical
"I may tell you that, although your Hospital Sonnets did not seem to attract much notice at the time, as, indeed, I always thought them rather wasted on a Magazine - yet I have heard them noticed since by more than one person in a way that would please you. A friend who called here two days ago appeared to have them by heart - at least he quoted the one about the two boys with great readiness of feeling."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical
'Aunt Ellen and her friends seemed to me wonderfully up-to-date and literary. She used to read Stevenson and Henley to us, which was the height of modernity then'.
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ellen Crofts Print: Book
'My poet writes good stuff; it is slack still and unequal, but I think some of it capital.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson
'I have a poet in stock here, a poor ass in the infirmary with one leg off and the other more than shaky − scrofula you know − but [italics]bougrement[end italics] intelligent, and he writes straight enough verses, I think. He?s learning, you know. But he makes good songs [and] here and there has a good idea. His hospital sonnets are very true and boldly real − not realistic, a word I have now learned to hate.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson
'My dear Henley,
Sketches
III line 11. More laughter comes from them than moan.
IV As a whole.
VII Both quatrains.
VIII line 2. Extemporising a becoming gloom.
IX Well, I don’t like it.
Portraits
I The sestett[sic] is not up to the mark, I think, but I don’t press this.
IV Is a little broken, and the phrasing is a little imbecile.
VII I don’t like.
IX The first quatrain, and the words "does not feel his place" in the second.
There is positively all I find….'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Probably proof.
'Will you allow me to recommend you the accompanying sonnets? They are by Mr Henley, who wrote the “Hospital Outlines” in this month’s "Cornhill" − poems which have made a great sensation here, where the portraits are easily recognized; and though these have not the same extrinsic interest, they seem to me better as workmanship and more agreeable altogether. Henley is a singularly fine fellow, whose constancy under great trouble is as remarkable as his verse. Let me add that he is not the richest person in the world, so (should these sonnets suit you for the magazine) an early publication will be of great service to him.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Sheet, Unknown
'Will you allow me to recommend you the accompanying sonnets? They are by Mr Henley, who wrote the “Hospital Outlines” in this month’s "Cornhill" − poems which have made a great sensation here, where the portraits are easily recognized; and though these have not the same extrinsic interest, they seem to me better as workmanship and more agreeable altogether. Henley is a singularly fine fellow, whose constancy under great trouble is as remarkable as his verse. Let me add that he is not the richest person in the world, so (should these sonnets suit you for the magazine) an early publication will be of great service to him.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown, Probably a proof copy.
'Herewith you receive the rest of Henley’s hospital work. He was much pleased by what you said of him, and asked me to forward these to you for your opinion; the pencil marks are principally Payne’s. One poem at least, the “Spring Sorrow”, which seems to me the most beautiful, I hope you will communicate to Madame. I thank God for this [italics]petit bout de consolation[end italics], that by Henley’s own account, this one more lovely thing in the world is not altogether without some trace of my influence: let me say that I have been something sympathetic which the mother found and contemplated while she yet carried it in her womb. This, in my profound discouragement, is a great thing for me; if I cannot do good work myself, at least, it seems, I can help others better inspired; I am at least a skilful accoucheur.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Unknown
'I like your "Byron" well ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'I liked your ... "Berlioz" better.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'I had already spotted your Dickens; very pleasant and true.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'The Mag has come; the only thing I liked was your Japanese.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'"The Omadhaun" was very funny by the Lord; I saw Constable who said both Payn and Kegan Paul had very highly lauded you.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical, Account of an Irish melodrama by H.P. Grattan.
'My dear Henley, I have just read your Crnhll with genuine delight and admiration.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'At last, son of night, I receive a communication […] Oh no, it is not the penny. It is the one-volume story demanded by Hueffer for the New Tarterly [sic]. It’s a real story, damned fine; but the dénouementdoesn’t please me yet: the beginning is so good, that it is difficult to get up to that pitch again, and the story sort of dies away.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Manuscript: Letter
'I liked your John Brown.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'I liked "Veuillot" horrid; it was jolly and sympathetic and I think true.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
'You will already have seen my word on Japanese Art. I read it a little differently, but your view of their fidelity to natural impressions is true, as far as it goes.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: proof
'Your "Dumas" I think exquisite.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Louis Stevenson Print: Serial / periodical
