| Publication Overview Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. The son of a prosperous civil engineer, he was expected to follow the family profession but finally was allowed to study law at Edinburgh University. In his early twenties he became afflicted with a severe respiratory illness from which he was to suffer for the rest of his life; it was at this time that he became determined to become a professional writer. He began publishing short stories and essays in the mid 1870s. His first novel, Treasure Island,was published in 1883 and brought him instant fame. Due to his constant illness, which developed into tuberculosis, Stevenson travelled from place to place hoping to improve his health. He finally settled in Samoa, where he was loved by the islanders who called him 'Tusitala' ('Teller of Tales'), and where he died in 1894, at the age of 44, having written thirteen novels, four volumes of short stories, essays, plays and many poems, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, and A Child's Garden of Verses. |
