Born in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson grew up in Edinburgh where his father was one of a family of well-respected lighthouse engineers. Stevenson initially followed in his father’s footsteps, studying engineering at Edinburgh University. But at 21, much to the dismay of his family, he changed career paths and decided to become a writer.
Extracts from the accompanying The Greatest Scot television programme are being added to these biographical notes as the programme is broadcast between November 9 and 13. If you live outside the UK, you will not be able to see these, but you may enjoy other videos about some of the subjects which are available via links in the text. Here is a video covering the launch of a graphic novel version of Stevenson's classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
His early works consisted of essays and travel writing and his first book, An Inward Voyage (1878), describes a canoe trip to Belgium and France. Despite his success with this style of writing, it was not until 1877 that his first work, a short story, was published.
In 1882, Stevenson began to publish the first of three books which were to make him a world-wide phenomenon whose books have been continously in print ever since. Treasure Island was first, introducing the unforgettable character of Long John Silver and an inlfuential vision of the priate life which still informs films such as Pirates of the Caribbean in serial format.
Published in serial format, it was followed by Kidnapped (1886), which still sets the standard for fast-paced adventure stories. Then there was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) which was to bring Stevenson fame on both sides of the Atlantic.
A lot of Stevenson’s stories have an underlying opinion about society at the time. Kidnapped can be viewed as a subtle examination of Scottish history and character. In addition, Jekyll and Hyde, while exploring the duality of good and evil, was also a criticism of Victorian morality.
Stevenson flouted convention, rejecting the hypocrisies of Calvinist Scotland and preferring a bohemian lifestyle in France. It was here that he met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne, an American divorcee, ten years his senior. He spent time in the American west with Fanny before voyaging even further west, into the Pacific.
His travelling kept the writer in warmer climates, a temperature that was better suited to his health. He was eventually to settle with his family in Samoa in the South Seas and remained there for the rest of his life.
Stevenson's novels often feature two characters that appear as two sides of one character, each striving to achieve dominance; ultimately they destroy one another, unable to co-exist. This split self can be seen as a metaphor for Stevenson’s conception of a divided Scotland.
In Samoa, his writing continued to show the importance of his native country and his work is often set in Scotland or uses Scottish themes. His short stories and later fiction such as The Master of Ballantrae (1888) show his interests in the effects Scotland’s history has on its people.
There was a sequel to Kidanpped, Catriona (1893), which remain unfinished and Weir of Hermiston (1896, also unfinished) which he was writing when he died in 1894.
Stevenson has been acknowledged as one of the most important writers of Scottish fiction. His writing highlighted the social, philosophical and cultural divisions of nineteenth-century Scotland but also had a timeless quality which continues to be the inspiration for numerous later writers, film-makers and dramatists ever since.
