info@robertlouisstevensonmemorialcottage.org
An illustration from the first edition of
âThe Master of Ballantraeâ
“I was walking one night in the verandah of a small house in which I lived, outside the hamlet of Saranac. It was winter; the night was very dark; the air extraordinary clear and cold, and sweet with the purity of forests. From a good way below, the river was to be heard contending with ice and boulders; a few lights appeared, scattered unevenly among the darkness, but so far away as not to lessen the sense of isolation. For the making of a story here were fine conditions. ‘Come,’ I said to my engine, ‘Let us make a tale, a story of many years and countries, of the sea and the land, savagery and civilization. ”
info@robertlouisstevensonmemorialcottage.org “My dear Henry James. This is to say First: the voyage (from London to New York) was a huge success. We all enjoyed it, bar my wife, to the ground. … Second, I had a fine time, rather a troubled one, at Newport and New York; saw much of and liked hugely, the Fairchilds and St. Gaudens the sculptor … and saw a lot of my old and admirable friend Will Low, whom I wish you knew and appreciated was medallioned by St. Gaudens and at last escaped to Third, Saranac Lake, where we now are, and which I believe we mean to like and pass the winter at. Our house emphatically ‘Baker’s’ is on a hill …”