Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer whose adventure fiction and psychological narratives became enduring works of English literature. Born in Edinburgh into a family of lighthouse engineers, Stevenson studied engineering at the University of Edinburgh before turning toward literature and studying law, although he never made legal practice his principal career. Chronic respiratory illness affected much of his life and influenced his frequent travels in search of healthier climates. His early literary reputation developed through essays, travel writing, and accounts of journeys, followed by the publication of Treasure Island (1883), which established his reputation as a writer of adventure fiction. He subsequently produced Kidnapped (1886), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), The Black Arrow (1888), and, with his wife Fanny Stevenson and later collaborators, additional works of fiction and travel. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde became particularly influential for its exploration of divided identity, morality, repression, and the capacity for contradictory impulses within a single person. Stevenson spent his later years traveling through the Pacific and eventually settled in Samoa, where he became known locally as Tusitala, meaning 'Teller of Tales.' He died at his Samoan home, Vailima, in 1894 at the age of forty-four.