Robert Neilson Stephens (1867-1906):
complete annotated alphabetical bibliography
of his historicals, swashbucklers, & miscellaneous works
by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Preface
Robert Neilson Stephens was one of a handful of excellent swashbuckler writers of the 1890s who fell under the spell of Stanley Weyman. Some of Stephens' works are overtly Weymanesque, such as the rare volume The Bright Face of Danger & his best-selling An Enemy of the King which imitate Weyman's form as well as setting. But wishing to be more than a Weyman imitator, which would have left him merely one of many, Stephens sought to personalize the mode & material. Being himself American, he adapted the methods Weyman used for French & English settings, fitting these methods to the environment of the American Revolution, as for The Continental Dragoon & one of his two or three best known books Philip Winwood. In The Road to Paris he developed a soldier of fortune character whose far-ranging adventures knitted together Stephens' favorite locations in revolutionary America, old London, & old Paris, all within the confines of a single novel.
These books are treasures both as marvelous adventure & as physically beautiful objects. Just as was done by Weyman's publishers, Stephen's chief publisher, L. C. Page, gave Stephens wonderfully ornate bindings & commissioned the best illustrators to provide interior plates. The action illustrations of H. C. Edwards became most identified with Stephens' books, but he had several illustrators, including Howard Pyle. The illustrations were usually carried over into Canadian & UK editions, but I haven't yet seen enough of these editions to know which also had decorative bindings akin to the Page editions.
Stephens died comparatively young & several of his works were either unpublished or unfinished at the time of his death. The majority of the post-1907 titles are quite rare, as the momentum of his 1890s career was not maintainable long into the new century, a time when even the great Weyman was falling from public graces & changing reading tastes would not sustain large printings. In his heyday he was regarded as an adult writer given splendid gift-worthy editions. But as with many other swashbuckling adventure writers, whatever reputation lingered after his death tended to place him in the "boy's book" category, though he was no more a juvenile writer than was Weyman or Sabatini.
At present I'm fairly confident at least the US first editions are all cited correctly, but a couple Canadian & UK firsts may still need to be added. Whenever corrections or additions are made to this page, updates will be noted on the What's New page. Also, more reprint publishers will be cited as these come to my attention. Remember, I am always eager to hear from my fellow swashbuckler fans, & would welcome reviews of specific books by authors akin to Robert Neilson Stephens to expand violetbooks.com's coverage of old costume adventures.
Annotated Bibliography
Of course this is not a "translation" but in the manner of Stanley Weyman affects to be a contemporary document, set in 17th Century France.
A witty Elizabethan era swashbuckler, one of Stephens' best books & a bestseller in its day. Stephens provided a meaty Introduction which has great significance to the history of criticism & historical romancing -- it is essentially a challenge to influential editor William Dean Howells who was rabidly anti-romantic.
A witty adventure set in the mid-Georgian period along the Great North Road in 1742, with a dashing hero & vivacious heroine, rather reminiscent of Jeffery Farnol & conceivably an influence on Farnol's 1911 breakthrough classic The Broad Highway. Appendix of historical notes.
G. Hembert Westley completed this book after Stephens' early death. Westley had himself written for Page, 1900, an excellent but unfortunately rare collection of historical tales, At the Court of the King: Being Romances of France.
A romance of the American Revolution laid in & around the old Philipse Manor House near Yonkers, which was within the so-called "neutral territory" between the two armies.
An historical romance describing the 16th Century adventures of a young French nobleman at the court of Henry III & on the field of battle with Henry IV. This is one of Stephens' best books. It is set about a decade earlier than Stanley Weyman's From the Memoirs of a Minister of France issued two years earlier.
A Romance of the Days of the Young Pretender.
A swashbuckling spy yarn with our hero joining an Elizabethan theatre troupe, becoming friend & confident to who other than William Shakespeare.
Rare; I have not yet seen a copy.
A play co-written by E. Lyall Swete.
Stephens' only modern detective yarn, one of the earliest such tales to incorporate the theme of plastic surgery to change identities. There was some years later a dramatization of this work written by Vincent Starrett, who wrote the play version at the request of the author's widow.
Play.
One of his most successful books neatly mixing Stephens' interest in the American Revolution & old England. The plot centers around a Colonial soldier whose beautiful featherbrained wife is unfortunately a Loyalist tempted by the seductive intentions of a one of the King's officers.
An American soldier of fortune of Jacobite ancestry, at the time of the American Revolution, adventures in Philadephia, New York, London, Paris, & elsewhere.
Unfinished at the time of his death, this tale of the Revolution was completed by G. E. Theodore Roberts. Roberts was himself an historical writer, with A Cavalier of Virginia & Comrades of the Trails both issued by Page in the same year as A Soldier of Valley Forge.
Completed by Herman Nickerson. Stephens' last posthumously published book, a bit scarce, & apparently issued only in the US. A Duma-esque adventure recapturing the influence of Weyman that marked Stephens at his best.
Posthumously collected tales of "characters" & cranks of the theater & all walks of bohemian life at the fringes of respectable society. Author's introduction.
About Robert Neilson Stephens
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