On November 13, 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure
Island and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was born in Scotland. Stevenson
studied civil engineering and law, but decided to pursue a career as a writer
and began publishing essays and travel pieces. His decision alienated his
parents, who expected him to follow the family trade of lighthouse keeping. The
family wasn't reconciled for years. In 1876, Stevenson fell in love with an
American woman named Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, who was separated from her
husband. When she returned to San Francisco in 1879, Stevenson followed her.
The couple married and returned to Scotland in 1880. Stevenson published a
collection of essays in 1881, and Treasure Island, one of his most
popular books, in 1883. In 1885, he published the first version of the popular
nursery-rhyme book A Child's Garden of Verse. In 1846, he published Kidnapped,
and in 1886 he published Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1888, the family
set off for the South Seas, seeking a healthier climate for Stevenson's
tuberculosis. The family finally settled in Samoa, where Stevenson died in
1894.
Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Literary Legends of the British Isles.
The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:
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