Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer born in Edinburgh. The only child of renowned lighthouse engineer Thomas Stevenson, he abandoned engineering and law to pursue literature despite suffering lifelong bronchial pulmonary illness. Seeking warm climates for his lungs, he traveled extensively through France, the American West, and ultimately the South Pacific.

Stevenson achieved global fame with the ultimate swashbuckling pirate adventure Treasure Island (1883), featuring Long John Silver, followed by the Scottish historical romance Kidnapped (1886). In Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), he created a profound psychological exploration of the dual nature of human morality. He spent his final idyllic years in Samoa, where native islanders reverently named him Tusitala ('Teller of Tales').