Robert Louis Stevenson
| Robert Louis Stevenson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson 13 November 1850 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 3 December 1894 (aged 44) Vailima, Samoan Islands |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet, travel writer |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Education | 1857 Mr. Henderson's School, Edinburgh 1857 Private tutors 1859 Return to Mr. Henderson's School 1861 Edinburgh Academy 1863 Boarding school in Isleworth, Middlesex 1864 Robert Thomson's School, Edinburgh 1867 University of Edinburgh |
| Period | Victorian era |
| Notable works |
Treasure Island A Child's Garden of Verses Kidnapped Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |
| Spouse | Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne |
| Children |
Isobel Osbourne Strong (stepdaughter) Lloyd Osbourne (stepson) |
| Relatives | father: Thomas Stevenson mother: Margaret Isabella Balfour |
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses.
A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Emilio Salgari, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov,J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins".
Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–87), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife Margaret Isabella (née Balfour; 1829–97). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, Stevenson was to change the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and in 1873 he dropped "Balfour".
Lighthouse design was the family's profession: Thomas's father (Robert's grandfather) was the famous Robert Stevenson, and both of Thomas's brothers (Robert's uncles) Alan and David, were in the same field. Indeed, even Thomas's maternal grandfather, Thomas Smith, had been in the same profession. However, Robert's mother's family were not of the same profession. Margaret's natal family, the Balfours, were gentry, tracing their lineage back to a certain Alexander Balfour who had held the lands of Inchyra in Fife in the fifteenth century. Margaret's father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton, and her siblings included the physician George William Balfour and the marine engineer James Balfour. Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his maternal grandfather's house. "Now I often wonder," wrote Stevenson, "what I inherited from this old minister. I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them."
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