Island Nights' Entertainments

"South Sea Tales" redirects here. For the collection by Jack London, see South Sea Tales (London collection).

Island Nights' Entertainments (also known as South Sea Tales) is a collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1893. It would prove to contain some of his final completed work before his death in 1894.

Illustration to Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" by William Hatherell (1855–1928)

It contains three stories:

• "The Beach of Falesá"
• "The Bottle Imp"
• "The Isle of Voices"

Dedication

The dedication was written in January 1892 in a letter to Charles Baxter, Robert Louis Stevenson's friend and adviser, and the book finally published in 1893.^[1] The dedication reads:

To three old shipmates among the islands,

Harry Henderson,

Ben Hird,

Jack Buckland,

their friend

R.L.S.

All three were Robert Louis Stevenson's fellow cabin passengers on the 1890 Janet Nicholl voyage.^[2][3] Harry Henderson was a partner in the firm Henderson and Macfarlane (died 1926, Melbourne); Ben Hird, the supercargo and trader; Jack Buckland a copra trader and original of the Tommy Hadden character in The Wrecker.^[4] Jack Buckland’s dedication copy of Island Nights’ Entertainments was inscribed by Stevenson to "Jack Buckland, from Robert Louis Stevenson".^[1]

References

1. The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Volume Seven, September 1890 - December 1892. Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew (Editors). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06213-7
2. The Cruise of the Janet Nichol Among the South Sea Islands, Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914.
3. James Cowan, (1937). R. L. S. and his Friends Some Stevenson Memories. New Zealand Railways Magazine, 12(2):59-61.
4. The Circular Saw Shipping Line. Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine Anthony G. Flude. 1993. (Chapter 7)

External links

• Island Nights' Entertainments title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson at Project Gutenberg
• Island Nights' Entertainments public domain audiobook at LibriVox