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One of the most popular, prolific, and influential writers of nineteenth-century boys' adventure stories and historical fiction, R. M. Ballantyne wrote around one hundred books, many set in exotic locations such as the South Seas, Africa, the Arctic, the Rocky Mountains, and South America. While most of his novels are episodic and are occasionally melodramatic, Ballantyne helped to establish firmly the realistic adventure story for young people, introducing readers to a variety of cultures and geographic locations. A few of his novels, most notably The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858), The Dog Crusoe and His Master (1861), Martin Rattler; or, A Boy's Adventure in the Forests of Brazil (1858), Snowflakes and Sunbeams; or, The Young Fur Traders (1856), and Ungava: A Tale of the Esquimaux Land (1857), have greatly influenced subsequent writers, especially Robert Louis Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, and William Golding.
Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 24 April 1825, the ninth child of Alexander "Sandy" Thomson Ballantyne and Anne Randall Scott Grant.
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