At about age 18, he changed the spelling of 'Lewis' to 'Louis', and he dropped 'Balfour' in 1873. He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–1897). Family and education Childhood and youth In 2018, he was ranked, just behind Charles Dickens, as the 26th-most-translated author in the world. Ī celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim.

He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at age 44. In 1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands, his writing turned away from romance and adventure fiction toward a darker realism. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.īorn and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. Bound set of many of Stevenson's works, 1909

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