VANITY FAIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 179, 1 August 1932, Page 2

VANITY FAIR

STEVENSON PLANS THE SOUTH SEA CRUISE. / Went up io Saranac several limes lo see Stevenson. He was living in the Baker collage, a rented furnished house near an ice-pond with trees around it. J remember once I took up a pair of skates for him and a pair for myself, and We skated. . . He told me, during that visit, that he had two new novels in mind, one of them a sequel lo “Kidnapped." The other was “St. Ives. I told him that I would take either story and pay him eight thousand dollars for it. Ije blushed and looked confused and said that his price Was eight hundred pounds (four thousand dollars), and that he must consult his wife and Will Low before he made any agreement. He went on to say that he didn't think any novel of his was Worth as much as eight thousand dollars, and that he wouldn't be templed to lake as much money as that for a novel, if it were not for a plan he had in mind. ... The evening of the day on which I offered Stevenson an increase in his serial rales Was the first lime I eVer heard him talk °f his desire to take a long ocean cruise. He told me again that he didn t think his novels Were worth what 1 had offered him, and that the consideration which most influenced him Ao accept such a price Was his wish to take a yacht and live for a while at sea. I thought at once of An Inland Voyage" and “Travels With a Donkey," and told him that if he would write a series of articles describing his travels, I would syndicate them for enough money to pay the expenses of his trip. I think the South Seas must have been mentioned that evening, for I remember that afler I returned lo New York I sent him a number of books about the South Seas, including a South Pacific directory. The next time I Went to Saranac, We actually planned out the South Pacific cruise, talking about it until late in to the night. That was a night not easily forgotten. Stevenson’s imagination was thoroughly aroused. He Walked up and down the floor, or stood leaning against the mantel, inventing one project afler anothei. We planned that when he came back he was to make a lecture tour and talk on the South Seas; that he was to take a phonograph along and make records of the sounds of the sea and wind, the songs and speech of the natives, and that these records were lo embellish his lectures. We planned the yacht and the provisioning of the yacht and all possible adventures. We planned a good deal more than a man could ever accomplish, but it was all real that night and Out of that talk came the South Sea cruise. S. S. McClure, in “My Autobiography."