"Robert Louis Stevensons famous Letter about the catholic martyr Father Damien has attained the stature of a small classic. The Belgian priests extraordinary devotion to the lepers of Molokai moved Stevenson to compose this impassioned answer to the despicable charges hurled against Damien. The Letter holds the reader with the incisive beauty of its diction, with its irony, its mockery, and its sarcasm. Measured in words, it is brief; but gauged in terms of the scene it evokes, the truths it states, the man it portrays, it is long. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it with the same clear and accurate insight into human motives and the same depth of sympathy found in all of his great novels and essays. Many books and pamphlets have been written about Father Damien, but this Letter is surely the most profoundly moving work about his courageous, dedicated, inspiring life." -Cobble Hill Press, Inc. New York.
