ABSTRACT
The Wrecker was begun in 1889 and finished in 1891. It ran in Scribner's Magazine from August 1891 to July 1892, and was published as a book in 1892. The story evolved as Robert Louis Stevenson travelled. Its nested plot begins with an island landfall then opens into a traveller's tale; that tale extends from America to Scotland to Paris and back and immediately takes a turn for the south seas – from which it returns only to set off again. Thus The Wreckeris enmeshed with Stevenson's past and his ongoing experiences. Writing The Wrecker in collaboration with Lloyd Osbourne, and at sea in the Pacific, Stevenson inscribed a theory as it was lived. Letters and novel together reveal a shifting towards spacing as he reconsiders mind, movement and art. In literary terms, The Wrecker has always been out of place.
