Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 13, 1850 to Thomas Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer, and Margaret Isabella Balfour. He suffered from chronic respiratory illnesses as a child, likely bronchiectasis or sarcoidosis, and was often bedridden. His nurse Alison Cunningham read him Bible stories and tales of Covenanters, sparking his early interest in narrative. He learned to read at age 7 or 8 and wrote his first book, The Pentland Rising, in 1866, published at his father’s expense.

Stevenson enrolled at the University of Edinburgh in 1867 to study engineering but found it uninteresting. He joined debating and drama clubs, and traveled with his father inspecting lighthouses, which turned his attention toward travel writing. In 1871 he announced his wish to become a writer; his father agreed on condition he also study law. Stevenson earned a law degree in 1875 but never practiced, instead pursuing a literary career in London.

Stevenson’s breakout came with the serialization of Treasure Island in 1881–1882, published as a book in 1883, which established him as a master of adventure fiction. He followed with the poetry collection A Child’s Garden of Verses 1885 and the Gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886, which explored dual personality and became an instant classic. That same year he published Kidnapped, a historical adventure set in Scotland.

In 1888 Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco and sailed the Pacific, visiting Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Gilbert Islands. He befriended King Kalakaua of Hawaii and his niece Ka’iulani. In 1889 he settled in Samoa, building a home called Vailima. There he wrote The Master of Ballantrae 1889 and A Footnote to History 1892, chronicling the Samoan Civil War. His later works showed a growing realist bent and critique of colonialism.

In 1876 Stevenson met American Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne in France; they became lovers in 1877. She returned to California in 1878, and Stevenson followed in 1879, nearly dying of illness during the journey. They married in May 1880, when he was 29 and she 40. Fanny nursed him to health, and they honeymooned at an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. The couple returned to the UK and later settled in Bournemouth, where Stevenson named their home Skerryvore after his uncle’s lighthouse.

After his father’s death in 1887, Stevenson felt no ties to Britain and, on medical advice, traveled with his widowed mother and family to the United States. They wintered in the Adirondacks before sailing to the Pacific. In Samoa, Stevenson became a local chief, known as Tusitala teller of tales, and advocated for Polynesian rights. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in December 1894 at Vailima, conversing with his wife.

Late-20th-century critics reevaluated Stevenson, who had long been seen mainly as a writer of children’s literature and horror, as an artist of substantial range and insight. UNESCO’s Index Translationum ranks him the 26th most translated author globally, between Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. His works have inspired numerous film adaptations, including Disney’s Treasure Planet and Muppet Treasure Island.

In Samoa, Stevenson is remembered as a friend of the people; after his death, Samoans cut a path to the summit of Mount Vaea for his burial. His tomb bears his own requiem. He is celebrated as one of the great storytellers in the romantic tradition.