Stevenson, Robert Louis (Balfour)

(born Nov. 13, 1850, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 3, 1894, Vailima, Samoa) Scottish essayist, novelist, and poet. He prepared for a law career but never practiced.

He traveled frequently, partly in search of better climates for his tuberculosis, which would eventually cause his death at age 44. He became known for accounts such as Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) and essays in periodicals, first collected in Virginibus Puerisque (1881). His immensely popular novels Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1889) were written over the course of a few years. A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) is one of the most influential children's works of the 19th century. In his last years he lived in Samoa and produced works moving toward a new maturity, including the story “The Beach of Falesá” (1892) and the novel Weir of Hermiston (1896), his unfinished masterpiece.

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