Sunday, July 15, 2007

R. L. Stevenson Tries His Hand

To Professor Aeneas Mackay

Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry, Perthshire June 21, 1881.

My Dear Mackay,-- What is this I hear?--that you are retiring from your chair? It is not, I hope, from ill-health?
But if you are retiring, may I ask if you have promised your support to any successor? I have a great mind to try. The summer session would suit me; the chair would suit me--if only I would suit it; I certainly should work it hard: that I can promise. I only wish it were a few years from now, when I hope to have something more substantial to show for myself. Up to the present time, all that I have published, even bordering on history, has been in an occasional form, and I fear this is much against me.

Please let me hear a word in answer, and believe me, yours very sincerely,

-from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson (New Haven: Yale University Press )Volume 1, page 69.

No comments: