Robert Louis Stevenson.
1850 - 1994.

Born in Edinburgh Scotland in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was a prolific writer producing stories, poetry and essays. He was in ill health from childhood, suffering from tuberculosis, and frequently sought a warmer climate than that provided in his native Scotland including southern France and the South Sea islands. These travels provided fodder for his works.

On one of his trips in France, he met an American woman Fanny Vandergrift Osbourne. She was married at the time, but was traveling without her husband and with her children. Stevenson charmed both Fanny and the children. She was later divorced. In 1879, Robert traveled by ship to New York and undertook an arduous cross country journey to San Francisco to re-unite with Fanny. They were married in 1880.

Soon after that his adventure story Treasure Island appeared in serial form is a magazine, Young Folks. He then revised it and published it in book form. This gained him fame and, along with his book of verse “Child’s Garden of Verses” which was dedicated to his nanny, Alison Cunningham who encouraged him to read and write, even when he was sick in bed, established him as a writer of note.

The Stevenson’s traveled back to Europe, but the climate was still too harsh for Robert’s health and they eventually settled on the island of Samoa. He continued to write and enjoyed a period of relatively good health while living there.

In 1894, at the age of 44, Robert Louis Stevenson died of a stroke in Vailima, Samoa and was buried on the summit of Mount Vaea.