Sophia Scarlet and Other Pacific Writings

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) devoted himself to literature, establishing his reputation as an essayist, travel writer and author. In 1888 he and his wife Fanny embarked on the first of three voyages searching Pacific waters, before settling in Samoa in 1889-90. Stevenson's Pacific writings express his ambition to form relationships with islanders and to explore a world in transit. He died of a cerebral stroke whilst writing Weir of Hermiston (1896). Robert Hoskins is an Associate Professor of Music at Massey University, New Zealand. He is the author of books on colonial balladry, English theatre music, and others. He is a music publisher and editor, and a contributor to New Grove, The Blackwell History of English Music, and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. He established the Massey University research center for Eighteenth-Century music that pools international scholarship.

Contents include: The Bottle Imp -- A Samoan Scrapbook -- Address to Samoan Students, Malua -- Talofa, Togarewa! -- Two Tahitian Legends -- Plain John Wiltshire on the Situation -- Missions in the South Seas -- The Labour Traffic -- Address to the Samoan Chiefs, Vailima -- Sophia Scarlet.