Dreams of Elsewhere

Best known for his fiction writing, Robert Louis Stevenson was also an essayist, journalist, poet and travel writer. His first major work was An Inland Voyage, an account of his journey by canoe from Antwerp to northern France. The companion work to this, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), is widely regarded as a travel-writing classic. June Skinner Sawyers has brought together the most comprehensive and representative sampling of Robert Louis Stevenson's prolific travel output, including excerpts from his most famous travel books, travel essays and travel poetry. The result is a collection that is as vivid and compelling as his fiction, and includes a number of lesser-known works from US collections. There are endlessly fascinating portraits of flesh-and-blood human beings, and it becomes apparent that he never grew tired of meeting new people, or of seeking new adventures. The story-teller always finds stories to tell and Stevenson was a consummate storyteller. In the tranquility of a French pine forest by moonlight he considers the importance of friendship; in a leper colony on Hawaii he reflects on physical horror and moral beauty; in all of his writing there is humanity and compasssion. Dreams of Elsewhere also features annotated listings of Stevenson historic sites, landmarks, museums, libraries, organisations, and even music inspired by Stevenson. As Gavin Bell, the critically acclaimed travel writer, states in his foreword: 'Admirers of RLS's work will welcome this judicious selection of sketches from an itinerant life. Those less familiar with his blythe spirit are in for a rare treat, a voyage of discovery with the teller of tales to where the surf murmurs on Parrot islands.'