Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

The present volume of the Edinburgh Edition {being the fourth
and last of the division 'Miscellanies') is intended to put
subscribers in possession of such portions of the author's
occasional writings, not hitherto collected, as best illustrate
either the growth of his powers during the experimental period
of youth, or the qualities of his mind and character in general.
Its contents are drawn partly from unpublished MSS. and
partly from various pamphlets, reviews, and periodicals. The
most important item in the former class is the fragment called
'Lay Morals,' which, though left uncompleted and unrevised,
seemed on all accounts too interesting to omit. In both classes
alike the editor has selected according to the best of his judg-
ment; neither thinking it desirable to print all the unpublished
MSS. of the author, nor to resuscitate all his minor or less
characteristic contributions to periodical literature.
The photogravure portrait at the head of the volume has been
prepared by the Art Reproduction Co. from an original kindly
furnished by Mr. John S. Sargent, A.B.A., vis. a platinotype
enlargement from a roughly-printed little amateur photograph
taken by Mr. Lloyd Osbourne in 1885. In Mr. Sargent's (and
the editor's) opinion this is by far the happiest portrait of the
author extant.