Stevenson at Silverado: The Life and Writing of Robert Louis Stevenson in the Napa Valley, California, 1880

From the elegant Hot Springs Hotel in Calistoga to a deserted bunkhouse beside an abandoned mine, "Stevenson at Silverado" brings to life the roaming and searching of a newly married Robert Louis Stevenson. Here are Stevenson's encounters with the stage drivers and muleteers, hunters and miners, innkeepers, windmakers, and roving prospectors he characterized in his wholly American book, "The Silverado Squatters." Moving in quiet, rambling episodes, "Stevenson at Silverado" reflects the casual spirit of the Napa Valey, one of the most beautiful sections of California. The simple and picturesque people of this countryside are vividly portrayed by Mrs. Issler, making that summer of 1880 come to life again. The encounter between Stevenson and the Silverado country was to be one of the most significant in the young author's life. Here he found a rich new fund of literary material; here he waded "deeper in the tide of life." The cover sketch is from his portrait by Wyatt Eaton, completed a few years after the honeymoon in the Napa Valley. It is used courtesy of the Silverado Museum, Saint Helena, California.