LLOYD OSBOURNE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 01/15/1902 - HFSID 3524

LLOYD OSBOURNE
The step-son of Robert Louis Stevenson writes to "Mr. Clemens" about getting his own stories published.
Typed Letter signed: "Lloyd Osbourne", 1p, 8x10¼. Lambs Club, New York City, 1902 January 15. To "Dear Mr. Clemens", in full: "I am sending you herewith the two forlorn hopes of which I told you. "Down Below the Forties' was refused, each time on the score of impropriety, by the Smart Set [This and subsequent underlinings were added in pencil.] and Ainslee's Magazine. The Co-Respondent (you can change the name if required) was refused by Scribner's, the Smart Set and Town Topics. You will find that there is good stuff in both the stories. I shall be very happy to get them printed even if I made very little money by them. I am sending at once for a copy of my 'Renegade'. It is without question the most daring, the most successful (artistically speaking) and the most powerful of anything I have ever attempted. I have broached the idea to A P Watt. I shall send you the Renegade on its arrival. Pardon my wretched typing, and believe me very sincerely yours". Samuel Lloyd Osbourne (1868-1947) was the stepson of famed author Robert Louis Stevenson, who married Fanny Osbourne in 1880. On a rainy day in 1881, Stevenson entertained the boy by drawing and coloring the map of an island; this exercise proved the inspiration for the Stevenson's beloved Treasure Island. Lloyd Osbourne accompanied his mother and stepfather to Samoa, co-wrote three books with Stevenson (The Ebb-Tide, The Wrecker, The Wrong Box). After Stevenson's death in 1894, Osbourne served as US Vice Consul in Samoa (appointed 1897). Osbourne was himself an author of several books, (including Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas, 1921), though he failed to achieve the literary prominence of his stepfather. This letter merits further researche. Was its recipient Samuel Clemens ("Mark Twain"), who frequented the Lambs Club, and, though his own publishing house had failed, was well connected to pass along promising works? No stranger to charges of impropriety, Clemens might be assumed to be receptive to works deemed "improper" by other publishers. Mailing folds. Two ½-inch tears at top edge. Minor paper separation at edges of horizontal folds. Otherwise, fine condition.