We all think a heap of your book; and I am well pleased with my
dedication. - Yours ever,

R. L. STEVENSON.

P.S. - APROPOS of the odd controversy about Shelley's nose: I have
before me four photographs of myself, done by Shelley's son: my
nose is hooked, not like the eagle, indeed, but like the
accipitrine family in man: well, out of these four, only one marks
the bend, one makes it straight, and one suggests a turn-up. This
throws a flood of light on calumnious man - and the scandal-
mongering sun. For personally I cling to my curve. To continue
the Shelley controversy: I have a look of him, all his sisters had
noses like mine; Sir Percy has a marked hook; all the family had
high cheek-bones like mine; what doubt, then, but that this turn-up
(of which Jeaffreson accuses the poet, along with much other
FATRAS) is the result of some accident similar to what has happened
in my photographs by his son?

R. L. S.



Letter: TO THOMAS STEVENSON



[SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH, JANUARY 25, 1886.]