Robert Louis Stevenson

lBorn: November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland and died December 3,1894 in Vailima, Samoa

lMarried: He married Fanny Vanderift Osbourne, an American 

Children:had two stepchildren, Lloyd and Belle

Other Novels:

• The Pentland Rising (Edinburgh: Privately printed, 1866).  
• An Appeal to the Clergy (Edinburgh & London: Blackwood, 1875).   
• An Inland Voyage (London: Kegan Paul, 1878; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883).  
• Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, with Etchings (London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1879; New York: Macmillan, 1889).  
• Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (London: Kegan Paul, 1879; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879).  
• Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (London: Kegan Paul, 1881; New York: Collier, 1881).  
• Familiar Studies of Men and Books (London: Chatto & Windus, 1882; New York: Dodd, Mead, 1887).  
• New Arabian Nights (2 volumes, London: Chatto & Windus, 1882; 1 volume, New York: Holt, 1882).  
• The Silverado Squatters (London: Chatto & Windus, 1883; New York: Munro, 1884).  
• Treasure Island (London: Cassell, 1883; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884).  
• A Child's Garden of Verses (London: Longmans, Green, 1885; New York: Scribners, 1885).  
• More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, by Stevenson and Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson (London: Longmans, Green, 1885; New York: Holt, 1885).  
• Macaire (Edinburgh: Privately printed, 1885).  
• Prince Otto: A Romance (London: Chatto & Windus, 1885; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1886).  
• Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (London: Longmans, Green, 1886; New York: Scribners, 1886).  
• Kidnapped (London: Cassell, 1886; New York: Scribners, 1886).  
• Some College Memories (Edinburgh: University Union Committee, 1886; New York: Mansfield & Wessels, 1899).  
• The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables (London: Chatto & Windus, 1887; New York: Scribners, 1887).  
• Underwoods (London: Chatto & Windus, 1887; New York: Scribners, 1887).   
• Memories and Portraits (London: Chatto & Windus, 1887; New York: Scribners, 1887).  
• Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin (London & New York: Longmans, Green, 1887).  
• The Misadventures of John Nicholson: A Christmas Story (New York: Lovell, 1887).  
• The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses (London: Cassell, 1888; New York: Scribners, 1888).  
• The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale (London: Cassell, 1889; New York: Scribners, 1889).  
• The Wrong Box, by Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne (London: Longmans, Green, 1889; New York: Scribners, 1889).  
• Ballads (London: Chatto & Windus, 1890; New York: Scribners, 1890).  
• Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu (London: Chatto & Windus, 1890; Portland, Maine: Mosher, 1897).  
• Across the Plains, With Other Memories and Essays (London: Chatto & Windus, 1892; New York: Scribners, 1892).  
• A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (London: Cassell, 1892; New York: Scribners, 1892).  
• Three Plays: Deacon Brodie, Beau Austin, Admiral Guinea, by Stevenson and W. E. Henley (London: Nutt, 1892; New York: Scribners, 1892).  
• The Wrecker, by Stevenson and Osbourne (London: Cassell, 1892; New York: Scribners, 1892).  
• Island Nights' Entertainments: Consisting of The Beach of Falesá, The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices (London: Cassell, 1893; New York: Scribners, 1893).  
• Catriona: A Sequel to Kidnapped (London: Cassell, 1893; New York: Scribners, 1893).  
• The Ebb-Tide: A Trio and a Quartette, by Stevenson and Osbourne (Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894; London: Heinemann, 1894).  
• The Body-Snatcher (New York: Merriam, 1895).  
• The Amateur Emigrant from the Clyde to Sandy Hook (Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895; New York: Scribners, 1899).  
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Other Fables (London: Longmans, Green, 1896).  
• Weir of Hermiston: An Unfinished Romance (London: Chatto & Windus, 1896; New York: Scribners, 1896).  
• A Mountain Town in France: A Fragment (New York & London: Lane, 1896).  
• Songs of Travel and Other Verses (London: Chatto & Windus, 1896).  
• In the South Seas (New York: Scribners, 1896; London: Chatto & Windus, 1900).  
• St. Ives: Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England (New York: Scribners, 1897; London: Heinemann, 1898).  
• The Morality of the Profession of Letters (Gouverneur, N.Y.: Brothers of the Book, 1899).  
• A Stevenson Medley, edited by S. Colvin (London: Chatto & Windus, 1899).  
• Essays and Criticisms (Boston: Turner, 1903).  
• Prayers Written at Vailima, With an Introduction by Mrs. Stevenson (New York: Scribners, 1904; London: Chatto & Windus, 1905).  
• The Story of a Lie and Other Tales (Boston: Turner, 1904).  
• Essays of Travel (London: Chatto & Windus, 1905).  
• Essays in the Art of Writing (London: Chatto & Windus, 1905). 
• Essays, edited by W. L. Phelps (New York: Scribners, 1906).  
• Lay Morals and Other Papers (London: Chatto & Windus, 1911).  
• Records of a Family of Engineers (London: Chatto & Windus, 1916).  
• The Waif Woman (London: Chatto & Windus, 1916).  
• On the Choice of a Profession (London: Chatto & Windus, 1916).  
• Poems Hitherto Unpublished, edited by G. S. Hellman, 2 volumes (Boston: Bibliophile Society, 1916).  
• New Poems and Variant Readings (London: Chatto & Windus, 1918).  
• Robert Louis Stevenson: Hitherto Unpublished Prose Writings, edited by H. H. Harper (Boston: Bibliophile Society, 1921).  
• When the Devil Was Well, edited by William P. Trent (Boston: Bibliophile Society, 1921).  
• Confessions of a Unionist: An Unpublished Talk on Things Current, Written in 1888, edited by F. V. Livingston (Cambridge,
• Mass.: Privately printed, 1921).  
• The Best Thing in Edinburgh: An Address to the Speculative Society of Edinburgh in March 1873, edited by K. D. Osbourne (San Francisco: Howell, 1923).  
• Selected Essays, edited by H. G. Rawlinson (London: Oxford University Press, 1923).  
• Castaways of Soledad: A Manuscript by Stevenson Hitherto Unpublished, edited by Hellman (Buffalo: Privately printed, 1928).  
• Monmouth: A Tragedy, edited by C. Vale (New York: Rudge, 1928).  
• The Charity Bazaar: An Allegorical Dialogue (Westport, Conn.: Georgian Press, 1929).  
• The Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by M. Elwin (London: Macdonald, 1950).  
• Salute to RLS, edited by F. Holland (Edinburgh: Cousland, 1950).  
• Tales and Essays, edited by G. B. Stern (London: Falcon, 1950).  
• Silverado Journal, edited by John E. Jordan (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1954).  
• From Scotland to Silverado, edited by James D. Hart (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966).  
• The Amateur Emigrant with Some First Impressions of America, edited by Roger G. Swearingen, 2 volumes (Ashland, Oreg.: Osborne, 1976-1977).  
• A Newly Discovered Long Story "An Old Song" and a Previously Unpublished Short Story "Edifying Letters of the Rutherford Family," edited by Roger G. Swearingen (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1982; Paisley, Scotland: Wilfion, 1982). 
• Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Beach of Falesé": A Study in Victorian Publishing with the Original Text, edited by Barry Menikoff (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984).

 The Life of Stevenson

When Stevenson was born he had lung disease which meant he had to spend a lot of time in bed. During this time he started to write poems, essays, and other writings.  Although he loved to write he actually studied engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Stevenson was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov,^[1]J. M. Barrie,^[2] 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".^{[3] (wikipedia)}  Even though he was sick for much of his life, he loved adventure. He crossed the ocean and enjoyed warmer climates. Stevenson met his wife one of his trips, when her children would beg him to tell more stories. Her name was  Fanny Osbourne - a divorced American, mother of two, and eleven years older than him. He married her when he was 30 years old. The idea for Treasure Island came on a visit to Scotland, while drawing a treasure map with his 12-year-old stepson. He and his family decided to sail around the Pacific Islands in 1888. The climate was so good that they decided to stay and make their home on the island of Upolu in Samoa. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote many fascinating stories about the South Seas, as well as nonfictional travel stories. Having fought for good health all his life, he died of a stroke in December 1894. He was only 44 years old. 

 How Stevenson trained himself to write

Robert Louis Stevenson was very young when he first started to read. He was sick with a disease called tuberculosis. He got it when he was very little. He spent a long time indoors, mostly in bed. He started to write to entertain himself. He read and wrote many books.

 Character Sketch of Stevenson

Stevenson was born with a disease called tuberculosis, and had poor health for most of his life. Stevenson had a passion for storytelling, writing, and adventures.  He created memorable characters that are often talked about in other books. He led a life of adventure even though he was sick. He liked writing and traveling to many distant lands. His writing helped improved the writing of other authors.  Even though he died at 44 years of age, he accomplished more than most authors did.

Stevenson in Samoa

  Stevenson, in the year 1890, bought 4 hundred acres of land on one of the Samoa Islands. He tried to go to Scotland two different times. Although he had to build his house and cleared his land he still had time to work on his writing. In the year 1894, Stevenson felt depressed. He had wondered if the depression had taken away his creativity, and worn him out completely. Stevenson feared that he might become a helpless person. On the morning of December 3, 1894, his fear finally came true. He was eating with his wife and  collapsed to the ground and died, right next to her. 

 How Stevenson came to write Treasure Island

      Stevenson was inspired to write Treasure Island while he and his step son ,Lloyd Osbourne, made a treasure map together. That’s when he got an idea to write a book about  Treasure Island.  Since there weren't as many pirates in the 1800s, he set  the book back about one hundred years.  He used old words so people thought it was a book from the 1700's.

 The Days of Piracy

      In the Days of Piracy; ships roamed the ocean, boarded other ships, and stole things they wanted or could sell,  sort of like what is happening today.  On the pirate ships  the captain took most of the treasure and only gave a small portion of it to the crew. Someimes the crew was upset about this. For example in Treasure Island the crew said,"If the Captain had money it should be ours because he had things for free like rum and he shouldn't have gotten those things for free. If we don't find the money we won't get our money at all because the Captain's shipmates, Black Dog and the Blind Beggar, aren't going to give us the money. "

 A Story Suggested by Billy Bones's Song

     The song tells the story of how a family tries to get away from the pirates, who they are afraid will come and steal from them. They  fear for their very lives.  The mother grabs their money  and possessions  (the map) and runs away from the tavern. The boy who leaves with his mother feels bad for the neighbors that are left behind, and isn't sure if his mother is a coward or very smart. We know the mother feels badly and is scared because she faints and the boy has to drag her to safety. Even then, they could hear the terrible things happening at the Inn. Pirates not only stole from ships but from anywhere they could get money.

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