Robert Louis Stevenson

Born in Edinburgh on November 13, 1850 into an esteemed family of lighthouse civil engineers, Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson suffered from severe pulmonary illness throughout his life, prompting him to pursue literature rather than engineering or law. Beginning as an insightful travel essayist with "An Inland Voyage" (1878) and "Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes" (1879), Stevenson achieved worldwide acclaim in 1883 with "Treasure Island." Featuring the unforgettable peg-legged pirate Long John Silver, the buried treasure map, and the pirate black spot, the novel permanently defined global pirate mythology. In 1886, Stevenson published his psychological masterpiece "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," a chilling Victorian examination of the duality of human nature and moral hypocrisy that became an instant worldwide sensation. That same year, he published the historical Scottish adventure novel "Kidnapped," set against the Jacobite rising. Seeking a climate suited for his failing lungs, Stevenson chartered a yacht in 1888 and sailed across the Pacific Ocean, ultimately settling on the Samoan island of Upolu. Beloved by the indigenous Samoans, who affectionately called him "Tusitala" (Teller of Tales), Stevenson died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in December 1894 at age 44. His grave atop Mount Vaea overlooks the Pacific, inscribed with his self-written Requiem: "Under the wide and starry sky, dig the grave and let me lie."