Who was Robert Louis Stevenson?
Essayist, poet, novelist and travel writer. Stevenson
is ranked the 28th most translated author in the world.
Date and Place of Birth:
13th November 1850, 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh,
Scotland. Christened Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
Family Background:
Only son of Thomas Stevenson, a prosperous civil
engineer and Engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses and Margaret
Isabella Balfour.
Education:
Mr Henderson’s Preparatory School, India
Street. Edinburgh Academy. Robert Thomson’s private school
in Frederick Street, Edinburgh. Edinburgh University.
Chronology/Biography of Robert Louis Stevenson:
1851: The Stevenson
family move to Number 1 Inverleith Terrace in Edinburgh. (Now numbered
9).
1852: Alison Cunningham
becomes Stevenson's Nurse.
1857: The Stevenson
family move to 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh.
1862: The family
travel to Bad Homburg in Germany to try and find a health cure for
his father.
1863: Family tour
to the South of France, Northern Italy and Austria. Stevenson returns
to Scotland for a short while and then goes top Mentone in France
to stay with his father.
1864: Goes to Colinton
Manse to stay with his mother for a month and then returns to Edinburgh.
1865: Visits Torquay
with his mother.
1866: "The Pentland
Rising" is published by Andrew Eliot at his father's expense.
1867: Goes up to
Edinburgh University to study engineering.
1868: Undertakes
training on lighthouse engineering.
1869: Joins the Speculative
Society, the University debating club. Sails around the Orkneys
and Shetland Isles with his father.
1871: Stevenson begins
studying Law at Edinburgh University.
1873: Quarrels with
his father as he says he is not a Christian. Meets Frances Sitwell
and Sidney Colvin at Cockfield Rectory in Suffolk and then travels
once more on his doctor's advice to Mentone after a physical collapse.
Publishes his first proper work "Roads" under the pseudonym
of L.S. Stoneven.
1874: Visits Paris.
Publishes in Macmillan's Magazine a work called "Ordered South"
and "Victor Hugo's Romances" in the Cornhill Magazine.
1875: Passes his
final examinations for the Scottish Bar but never practices. Goes
on a walking tour in France.
1876: Stevenson meets
Mrs Fanny Osbourne at Grez-sur-Loing on his inland voyage through
France.
1877: Stays in Paris
with Fanny. Publishes his first short story "A Lodging for
the Night" in Temple Bar.
1878: Fanny returns
to her husband in California, USA and takes her three children with
her.
1879: Sails to New
York from Greenock on the ship Devonia. Takes a train to Monterey.
Fanny gets a divorce from her Husband Sam Osbourne. Stevenson moves
to 608 Bush Street in San Francisco.
1880: Stevenson moves
into the Tubbs Hotel in East Oakland but is moved to Fanny's house
to be nursed after he has a hemorrhage. Is advanced a yearly sum
of £250 from his parents. Marries Fanny in May and the couple
go to the Napa Valley for their honeymoon. They take a ship form
New York to Liverpool where his parents meet Fanny for the first
time. Then go on to winter in Davos in Switzerland for the sake
of his health.
1881: Spends time
in Braemar Scotland where he begins writing "The A Sea Cook"
which is later to become "Treasure Island". This is published
under the Pseudonym Captain George North in Young Folks Magazine.
spends the winter in Davos once more.
1882: Spends the
year traveling in Scotland and France. The first Performance of
"Deacon Brodie" is given in Bradford.
1883: Moves to Hyères
in France and lives at the Chalet la Solitude, 4 Rue Victor Basch.
"Black Arrow" is serialised in Young Folks Magazine. "Treasure
Island is first published in book form.
1884: Stevenson moves
to Bournemouth and suffers from such bad health that he can hardly
leave the house.
1885: Moves in to
“Skerryvore” house in Bournemouth which had been bought
him as a wedding present. Visits Thomas Hardy in Dorchester. Starts writing the "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde"
1886: "Kidnapped"
begins to be serialised in Young Folks Magazine.
1887: Stevenson leaves
Bournemouth and travel to Edinburgh staying on the way in York.
Death of his father. Stevenson is too ill to attend the funeral.
Signs a contract with the publishers Cassells for the publication
of "David Balfour" and "Catriona". Travels back
to Bournemouth. Travels to London where he says goodbye to friends
and then goes to New York on the SS Ludgate Hill. Arrives in New
York in September.
1888: Signs a contract
with the publishers S.S. McClure to sell travel articles about his
journey to the South Seas. Meets his mother at Manasquan, New Jersey,
then travels to California on the train to be with Fanny. Goes aboard
the ship The Casco in San Francisco and sets sail for the Pacific
Islands.
1889: Arrives in
Honolulu.
1890: Buys the our
hundred acre Vailima Estate in Apia, Samoa. Sails to Sydney, then
New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and finally docks at Noumea
in New Caledonia. Goes back to Sydney to continue writing. The Stevenson
family settle at the Estate in Vailima. Stevenson himself leaves
Sydney for Apia.
1891: Returns to
Sydney where he meets his mother. Returns to Samoa with his mother
in March.
1892: Stevenson gets
involved with Samoan politics and writes letters to "The Times"
newspaper in London. Graham Balfour arrives at Vailima and stays
with the Stevensons.
1893: Leaves for
New Zealand and Australia. Returns to Vailima. In July there is
a war between the Samoan Chiefs Mataafa and Laupepa and Stevenson
supports Mataafa even though he is defeated. Goes on a trip to Hawaii.
In October there is a feast to celebrate the completion of the book
“The Road of the Loving Heart” and his political supporters
build a road from Vailima to the main public road to thank him.
Written Works:
(By Date of publication)
- 1873:
"Roads"
- 1876:
"Charles of Orleans"
- 1877: "On
Falling in Love"
- 1878: "Picturesque
Notes"
- 1879: "Travels
with a Donkey", "The Story of a Lie"
- 1881: "Some
Portraits by Raeburn", "Virginibus Puerisque",
"Treasure Island", “Thrawn Janet”
- 1882: “Talk
and Talkers”, “The Foreigner at Home”, “The
Merry Men”, "New Arabian Nights", “A Gossip
on Romance”, "Deacon Brodie"
- 1883: “Across
the Plains”, “The Treasure of Franchard”, “A
Note on Realism”
- 1884: "The
Silverado Squatters", “A Humble Remonstrance”
- 1885: "A
Child’s Garden of Verses", "More New Arabian Nights:
"The Dynamiter" (with Fanny), "Prince Otto",
“Olalla”
- 1886: “The
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. “Kidnapped”.
- 1887: "Ticonderoga",
"The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables", "Memories
and Portraits", "Underwoods" (poetry)
- 1888: "The
Education of an Engineer",
“An Epilogue to An Inland Voyage”,
"Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin", “The Misadventures
of John Nicholson”
- 1889: "The
Wrong Box", "The Master of Ballantrae"
- 1890:
“Ballads”, "Father Damien: An Open Letter to Reverend Doctor
Hyde", "Entertainments and Ballads"
- 1891: "In
the South Seas", “The Bottle Imp”
- 1892: "The
Wrecker", “The Beach of Falesa”, "A Footnote
to History"
- 1893: "Island
Nights", “Isle of Voices”, “The Road of
the Loving Heart”
- 1894: “Collected
Works”. “The Ebb Tide”.
- (1895): "The
Amateur Emigrant"
- (1896): “A
Winter’s Walk in Carrick and Galloway” , "The
Weir of Hermiston"
- (1897): "St
Ives"
Marriage:
19th May 1880 to Mrs Fanny Vandergrift Osbourne.
Date and Place of Death:
3rd December 1894, Vailima, Samoa of a cerebral
hemorrhage.
Age at Death:
44.
Site of Grave:
Summit of Mount Vaea on Upolu, Samoa. Local
people clear a way for his grave.
Places of Interest:
CUMBRIA:
Globe Hotel, Cockermouth.
EAST SUSSEX:
Westbourne house, Eastbourne called "Skerryvore"
which he lived in from 1885 to 1887.
EDINBURGH:
The Writers Museum, Lady Stairs House, Lady Stairs
Close, Lawnmarket, EH1 2PA.
Princes Street Gardens memorial by Iain Hamilton Finlay.
Further Information:
The Robert Louis Stevenson Club
c/o Ms M Bean
37 Landor Road
Edinburgh
EH1 I06
