Justly celebrated for Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was also an enormously gifted essayist. This anthology collects 33 of his finest pieces on diverse subjects, including humorous sketches and autobiographical reflections; critical studies of Whitman, Burns, and Pepys; as well as essays on dreams, umbrellas, falling in love, political activism, and the art and craft of writing.