Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on November 13, 1850. He came from a wealthy family with strict principles and studied engineering at the University of Edinburgh. He later completed law school, but soon literature won him over—he renounced the Calvinism of his bourgeois family and embraced the bohemian lifestyle. He wrote novels, poems, essays, letters, travel books, and children's books. Throughout his life, he traveled—often for health reasons—eventually settling in the Tropics, in Samoa, where he continued his writing. The natives adored him and called him Tusitala (the storyteller). "Treasure Island" (1883) began as a simple map intended to entertain children. Other well-known works include "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1886), "Kidnapped" (1886), and "The Master of Ballantrae" (1889). He died suddenly on December 3, 1894, at the height of his creative career.