Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World

“An affectionate homage,” this novel of Stevenson’s evolution into an adventure writer is “a loving reconstruction of an era of storytelling now lost” (New York Times).

The young Robert Louis Stevenson, living in a boarding house in San Francisco in the nineteenth century while waiting for his beloved’s divorce from her feckless husband, dreamed of writing a soaring novel about his landlady’s adventurous and globe-trotting husband, John Carson—but he never got around to it. And very soon thereafter he was married, headed home to Scotland, and on his way to becoming the most famous novelist in the world, after writing such classics as Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped.

But now Brian Doyle brings Stevenson’s untold tale to life, braiding the adventures of seaman John Carson with those of a young Stevenson, wandering the streets of San Francisco, gathering material for his fiction, and yearning for his beloved across the bay. An adventure tale, an elegy to one of the greatest writers of our language, a time-traveling plunge into The City by the Bay during its own energetic youth, The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World is entertaining, poignant, and sensual.

“[A] triumph.” —Washington Post

“Rich prose and a unique perspective on one of the world’s most beloved authors.” —Publishers Weekly

“A tale of bounding energy with a delicate touch, driving always towards the beautiful and the true.” —Helen Garner, author of The Spare Room

“[A] tender, affectionate, and terribly fun homage to the joys of storytelling and storytellers.” —Kirkus Reviews