R.L Stevenson author page

R.L Stevenson biography

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. He is associated with Victorian literature, and his works include fiction, poetry, essays and travel writing. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Master of Ballantrae and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850. He entered the University of Edinburgh at 16, initially with the expectation that he would become a lighthouse engineer, then studied law and was called to the bar in 1875. He did not practise law, and his essays were published in periodicals before his first two books, An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), drew on journeys in France.

Treasure Island began from a map of an imaginary island and was serialised from 1 October 1881 under the pseudonym Captain George North. The book edition followed in 1883. A Child’s Garden of Verses was published in 1885, and Kidnapped was serialised and published as a book in 1886; Kidnapped is set in the Scottish Highlands in 1751 and follows David Balfour and Alan Breck.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 after Stevenson developed the story from a dream about a man changing into a monster. Later works included The Master of Ballantrae, Catriona (1893) and the unfinished Weir of Hermiston. Stevenson settled on Upolu in Samoa in 1890 and continued writing there until his death on 3 December 1894.