AUTOGRAPH WORKING MANUSCRIPT. An Unpublished Poem and dialogue sketch from Catriona.

Single leaf, folio (319 × 200 mm), 16 lines written on one side and four on the verso, with some deletions. Browning and a little chipping at edges, still in good condition.

A working manuscript, beginning with a dialogue sketch from Catriona, the 1893 sequel to Kidnapped (1886). What follows are about 16 lines of unpublished poetry, in part: "I am come from a land of heath and driving rain / A rusty scornful land, and the folk therein / Brown and sharp in the face; and the wind forever blowing / Ancient stories of red venatius days." The lines bear similarities to Song 43 from Stevenson's posthumously published Songs of Travel. Provenance: Robert Louis Stevenson, auction of his library, Anderson Auction Company, 1914; purchased by Howard Goodhart, collector of incunabula; sent by him to Samuel M. Brickner, author of a poetic eulogy to Stevenson published in the New York Times in 1915.

Stock code: 8325