Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was a prominent Scottish author, born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His family was known for their work in lighthouse design. Due to poor health, Stevenson was educated primarily at home and later attended the Edinburgh Academy for boys. He enrolled at the Edinburgh University to study engineering, but his interests lay elsewhere, leading him to spend most of his time with a debating club.

Stevenson is best known for his critically acclaimed works in poetry, fiction, and travel genres. His most popular works include "Treasure Island," published in 1883, and "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." These novels, among others, have solidified Stevenson's reputation as a skilled and imaginative writer. Although celebrated during his lifetime, Stevenson's work faced criticism following World War I, when authors like Virginia Woolf relegated him to a "second class" novelist. However, his standing was later restored when Oxford Inkling Roger Lancelyn Green praised Stevenson as a "writer of a consistently high level of literary skill or sheer imaginative power." Stevenson's influence extended to many notable authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, and Vladimir Nabokov.

Stevenson's early education at home and his poor health significantly impacted his life and work. At the age of 18, he changed his name from Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson to Robert Louis Stevenson, which he considered more masculine and fitting for an author. Despite his frail health, Stevenson was determined to become a writer and was inspired by the works of Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, James Hogg, Edgar Allan Poe, John Galt, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Stevenson's work has been widely translated, placing him in the 26th position among the most translated authors worldwide. He passed away on December 3, 1894, but his literary contributions continue to be celebrated and appreciated by readers and authors alike.