LIFE AT TWENTY FIVE

This list is from a transcript of an untraced MS made by Graham Balfour (NLS MS 9900, Notebook 1895, f. 15). Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, as its Dedication tells us, started as a planned volume to be called Life at Twenty-Five, and this list gives an idea of what was intended. It probably dates between late autumn 1876, when ‘Falling in Love’ was written (items IV, XI and ‘Walking Tours’ were all written before then) and 1 March 1877 when Leslie Stephen advised Stevenson not to prepare a book of essays (and certainly before August 1877, when ‘Crabbed Age and Youth’ was written; for a full discussion, see lxxi–lxxii). In Balfour's transcription the first item is ‘Opinions of Youth and Age. Opinions generally, my opinions’, with the first five words deleted. The unnumbered items at the bottom are written in different ink so may have been added later by Balfour from another list.

HAIR TRUNK NOTEBOOK

This incomplete list of essay titles was written in pencil inside the front cover of the second notebook in which Stevenson's fair copy of The Hair Trunk was written (Huntington Library, HM 2411). The list must have been written after the composition of ‘Crabbed Age and Youth’ ( July/Aug 1877)—here titled ‘Youth and Age’—and before completing ‘Æs Triplex’ in November 1877. Roman numerals refer to title ordering (see Introduction lxxii), the numbers beside them to estimated page numbers; ‘84’ and ‘94’ probably refer to an average essay length of 14 pages multiplied by 6 and 7 (the five listed titles, plus the unwritten essays for numbers II and III ); ‘X’ and ‘XI’ look like slips for ‘V’ and ‘VI’.