Robert Louis Stevenson, after his marriage to Mrs. Osbourne in
San Francisco in 038o, spent a few months in the hills of Napa County, north of San Francisco, at the deserted mining camp of Silverado. His experiences during this rest-cure which greatly benefited his health were recorded in The Silverado Squatters, first printed in the Century Magazine in November and December 1883. Mrs. Issler, who lives in Napa County, has had the happy idea of col- lecting all the local material available so as to show how accurately Stevenson described the district and the odd Cali- fornian characters. Her book (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 3 dollars, 50.) is carefully written and elaborately illustrated, and is a substantial addition to the Stevenson library. Mrs. Issler has found several aged men who re- membered R. L. S. ; the stage driver " thought him a kind of fool, livin' in that old shack awritin' books." The site of the shack is marked by a granite monument to Stevenson; Napa County is proud of the fact that The Silverado Squatters introduced him to American readers.
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