Stevenson, Robert Louis
Napa Wine
1965, St Helena, California, James E. Beard
First edition
Long before Napa became shorthand for prestige vintages, Robert Louis Stevenson walked its hills as a convalescent and found poetry in its barrels.
Napa Wine, a little editorial jewel, resurrects a once-omitted chapter from The Silverado Squatters (1883), where Stevenson writes with unfiltered enthusiasm for the valley’s “inimitable fragrance and soft fire.”
Issued under the guidance of James Beard and graced with an introduction by M.F.K. Fisher, this elegant little volume reaffirms Stevenson not just as a novelist but as one of Napa’s first literary champions. His prose captures the valley at a tender moment, before the marketing, before the Michelin stars, just sunlight, soil, and the unmistakable promise of wine.
The proof that Napa was literary long before it was luxury and the marketers showed up. This slim book is a literary curiosity, an editorial gem, and a sly reminder that Napa’s first vintage was ink on paper.
Pp. [2] f.e., X, 12, [4], [1] r.e.
Original half green cloth, boards with green vine-leaf patterned paper. Beautiful title page with a green lithographed vine that extends onto the recto of the preceding leaf, which bears a black-and-white photograph of the author at St. Helena. Green initials and ornaments throughout the text. The elegant colophon states that the title page comes from the collection of Norman H. Strouse, the type is Centaur, and the decorations are by Mallette Dean.
Dimensions (inches): 7.5 x 5 1/4 x 1/4
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, famed for Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
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