Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Lewis Stevenson was born on November 13th, 1850, in Edinburgh Scotland. He was a very sickly child and spent much time in bed where his devoted nurse told him stories from the bible and Scottish history. Stevenson used to lie awake in his bed thinking of these stories and very early on decided he wanted to write stories of his own.

At the age of six he wrote and illustrated his own story of how Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt:



A drawing by the six-year-old Stevenson



This pleased his family so much that he was presented with a bible picture book as a reward. His mother wrote in her diary that "from that time forward it was the desire of his heart to be an author." 



Stevenson as a child


As he grew up Stevenson developed a reputation for idleness and rebelliousness. His frequent sickness prevented him from entering the families civil engineering business, but he never gave up on his dream of becoming a writer.

Stevenson as a young man



For health reason he was sent to the warmer climates of the European continent, which suited him just fine because he loved to travel, and it was in France that he met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne. She was an American, and when she went home Stevenson decided to go to America. He made the journey without telling his parents and against the advice of his friends. Once in America he travelled from one end of the country to the other. All the time he travelled he wrote about his journeys and these writing were what first established his reputation as a writer.

Robert Louis Stevenson



He married Fanny and became step father to the three children of her first marriage. The family moved back to Europe, but only stayed in Scotland during the warm summer months. It was there, in the summer of 1881, that Stevenson created the story of Treasure Island as an amusement for his stepson. When it was serialized two years later, Treasure Island became very popular. He followed up with many very successful books including Kidnapped!, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verse.

In 1887 the Stevensons returned briefly to America, but set sail the following year for the South Pacific. They settled on the island of Upolu in Samoa, and there they lived until Stevenson died suddenly of a brain hemmorage at the age of forty four.

On his tombstone are words he had written:

 

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

 

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

Sources:

Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (1850-1894).Something about the Author. Ed. Alan Hedblad. Vol. 100. Detroit: Gale, 1999. p225-230

http://digital.nls.uk/rlstevenson/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson