Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

(born November 1850 – died December 1894) – Edinburgh

One of Edinburgh’s most famous literary sons, Robert Lewis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1854. He was a poorly child, and ill-health plagued him throughout his life. Stevenson came from a line of famous engineers – both his father and grandfather were successful lighthouse engineers [c.f. Belle Bathurst's The Lighthouse Stevensons].

At eighteen, he shortened his name, and changed the spelling of Lewis. Stevenson studied engineering at university, but switched to law. Then, at twenty-one, he declared his intention to become a writer. Both his father Thomas and his Nanny Alison Cunningham ['Cummy'] read to him frequently, particularly religious stories from the Bible and from the Covenanters. His knowledge of Scottish history influenced novels such as Kidnapped (chosen by Edinburgh City of Literature as their first One City, One Book title) and The Master of Ballantrae. RLS married American divorcee Fanny Osbourne (a controversial choice) in 1880.

Believing the the healing powers of a better climate than that of Scotland, Stevenson and his family travelled widely, living in Switzerland, France and Hawaii. It was during his time that he had some of his biggest successes. Treasure Island is an exciting tale of adventure, piracy and travel (themes he would return to often), while The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a haunting psychological tale. He also wrote travel books, such as Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes and In the South Seas.

Stevenson finally settled in Samoa in 1892, where the local tribe named him Tusitala – 'storyteller' - but died in 1884 of a brain haemorrhage.

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The Black Arrow: A Tale Of The Two Roses - Paperback
Set in England during the Wars of the Roses, this novel tells the story of Dick Shelton, a young man who is betrayed by his treacherous and brutal guardian, and is forced to seek the help of John Amend-All, his guardian's sworn enemy.
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Catriona - Paperback
Written in 1893, 'Catriona' is the sequel to the Highland adventure 'Kidnapped' and follows the further adventures of its hero, David Balfour.
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A Child's Garden Of Verses - Paperback
Moving from make-believe worlds to curiosity and descriptions of simple pleasures, these poems capture a child's wonder, imagination and fascination with everyday things.
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In The South Seas - Paperback
Originally written as a series of sketches for an American magazine, this is Stevenson's record of the first year he and his family spent travelling around the Marquesas, the Paumotus and the Gilbers.
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Kidnapped - Paperback
'Kidnapped' is an adventure story in which the tensions run deep, not only between pursuer and the pursued, but in ancient misunderstandings between the two heroes: Whig and Jacobite; Lowland rationalist and romantic Highlander. This edition has a foreword by well-known Scottish novelist Alasdair Gray.
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The Master Of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale - Paperback
The Master of Ballantrae opens in the old Scottish house of Durisdeer. Its adventure draws in sea voyages, piracy, buried treasure and centres on the fatal rivalry between two brothers and the kinswoman who loves one brother but marries the other.
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Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped - Hardback Slipcased
Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Kidnapped' is here retold as a graphic novel. It is the story of 17-year-old David Balfour who sets out to find his uncle, never dreaming that he will narrowly escape being murdered or that he will be kidnapped and end up in the company of the fugitive Alan Breck.
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South Sea Tales - Paperback
The literary world was shocked when in 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle in Samoa. His readers were equally shocked when he used his new environment to produce critical treatments of imperialism. This volume presents a selection of his Pacific fiction.
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The Story Of A Lie - Paperback
Presented here alongside Stevenson's celebrated short story 'The Body Snatcher', 'The Story of a Lie' is a prime work of Victorian gothic, albeit with a surprising and uncharacteristic comic slant.
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The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde - Paperback
This dark psychological fantasy is more than a moral tale. It is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution and criminality and the secret lives behind Victorian propriety, to create a unique form of urban Gothic.
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Travels With A Donkey In The Cévennes - Paperback
In 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson was suffering from poor health, struggling to survive on the income derived from his writings, and tormented by his infatuation with Fanny Osbourne, a married American woman. His response was to embark on journeys through Cévennes and America where he wrote 'Travels With a Donkey' and 'The Amateur Emigrant'.
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Treasure Island - Paperback
Jim Hawkins gets hold of a treasure map and sets off with an adult crew in search of the buried treasure. Among the crew, however, is the treacherous Long John Silver who is determined to keep the treasure for himself.

Bibliography

An Inland Voyage - 1878
Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes - 1878
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes - 1879
Viginibus Puerisque and other Papers - 1881
Familiar Studies of Men and Books - 1882
New Arabian Nights - 1882
Treasure Island - 1883
The Silverado Squatters - 1884
A Child's Garden of Verses - 1885
More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (with Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson) - 1885
Prince Otto - 1885
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - 1886
Kidnapped - 1886
The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables - 1887
Memories and Portraits - 1887
Underwoods - 1887
The Black Arrow: A Tale of Two Roses - 1888
The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale - 1889
The Wrong Box (with Lloyd Osbourne) - 1889
Ballads - 1890
Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde of Honolulu from Robert Louis Stevenson - 1890
A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa - 1892
Three Plays by W.E. Henley and R.L. Stevenson (with W.E. Henley) - 1892
The Wrecker - (with Lloyd Osbourne) 1892
Across the Plains With Other Memories and Essays - 1892
Island Nights' Entertainments - 1893
Catriona (Published in the USA as David Balfour) - 1893
The Ebb-Tide (with Lloyd Osbourne) - 1894
The Amateur Emigrant (Ready for publication, but withdrawn, in 1880) - 1895
Songs of Travel and other Verses - 1895
'Fables' - 1896
Weir of Hermiston: An Unfinished Romance - 1896
In the South Seas - 1896
St. Ives: Being The Adventures of a French Prisoner in England - 1898
Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson to His Family and Friends (ed. S. Colvin) - 1899

Biographies of RLS

RLS: A Life Study - Jenni Calder - 1980
The Quest for RLS - John Cairney - 2004
Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - 2001
Stevenson's Scotland - Tom Hubbard, Duncan Glen - 2004
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Travelling Mind - Eileen Dunlop - 2008

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Robert Louis Stevenson: The Travelling Mind - Eileen Dunlop - Paperback
This is a concise and insightful account of the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, one of Scotland's best-loved writers, from his childhood in Edinburgh to his final years in the South Seas.
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Stevenson's Scotland - Robert Louis Stevenson; Tom Hubbard; Duncan Glen - Paperback
Although Robert Louis Stevenson travelled the world from Silverado to Samoa, Scotland remained his home and he wrote extensively about it. This anthology includes the best of these writings.