Stevenson robert louis biography
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Treasure Island Author Robert Louis Stevenson Was a Sickly Man with a Robust Imagination
Under the wide and starry skyDig the grave and let me lie
Glad did I live and gladly die
And I laid me down with a will
This be the verse you grave for me
Here he lies where he longed to be
Home is the sailor home from the sea
And the hunter home from the hill
Stevenson had many occasions to think about his own mortality. Frequently ill since childhood, he’d suffered from a chronic lung ailment with symptoms typical of tuberculosis, including breathing problems and spitting up blood. Some commentators have speculated that Stevenson didn’t have tuberculosis, but a rarer pulmonary condition such as bronchiectasis or Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome. Whatever the root of Stevenson’s health problems, the result was essentially the same. He’d come near death several times, and had traveled much of the world in an odyssey to find a climate ideal for his health.
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Born on November 13, , in Edinburgh, Scotland, Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson came from a long line of prominent lighthouse engineers. During his boyhood, he spent holidays with his maternal grandfather, a minister and professor of moral philosophy who shared his love of sermons and storytelling with him. Prone to illness, Stevenson spent many of his early winters in bed, entertained only by his imagination and a great love of reading, especially William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, John Bunyan and The Arabian Nights.
Encouraged to follow the family tradition of lighthouse engineering, Stevenson began studies at the University of Edinburgh in , but quickly discovered he preferred a career in literature. To satisfy his father, he acquired a law degree and was admitted to the bar by the time he was twenty-five.
Stevenson spent the next four years traveling through Europe, mostly around Paris, publishing essays and articles about his travels. In , he me
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Robert Louis Stevenson
For other people named Robert Stevenson, see Robert Stevenson (disambiguation).
Scottish novelist and poet (–)
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November – 3 December ) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.
Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Sidney Colvin, Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse,[1]Leslie Stephen and W.&#;E.&#;Henley, the gods of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. In , he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands,