Harriet Campbell, age 16, of Dubuque, Iowa, for her question:
DID ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON WRITE MANY BOOKS?
Robert Louis Stevenson is considered to be the most popular and successful among writers of the late 1800s who developed romance as a reaction to the literary movements of realism and naturalism. His first and most famous novel was "Treasure Island."
Stevenson was a very prolific writer. He wrote many novels, short stories, travel books, essays and poems.
Born in Scotland in 1850, Stevenson studied engineering and later law. But his real love was writing. He fought illness constantly, writing many of his best books from a sickbed.
When he was 30 years old, he married American Fanny Osbourne. She had two children and was 11 years older than Stevenson. For a time they lived in a mining camp in St. Helena, Calif., while he was recovering from an illness.
Stevenson's second major novel was "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Then came the very successful "Kidnapped," considered by many to be his best long novel.
Moving from California, Stevenson and his family returned to Scotland. For seven years they moved through Europe from one resort to another, hoping that a change of air would improve Stevenson's health. They returned to the United States in 1887. When illness struck again, Stevenson entered a sanitarium at Saranac Lake, N.Y.
When his health improved, Stevenson decided to sail a yacht to the South Seas. In 1888 he left San Francisco with his wife, widowed mother and a stepson. For the next six years he traveled and wrote from many of the South Sea islands.
He bought some forest land near Apia, Samoa, and built a large house. He became a planter and took an active part in island affairs.
Tragedy clouded Stevenson's last years. His wife suffered a nervous breakdown. And then he died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 44. But he did one important thing: He left a rich treasure of his many writings.
Stevenson's kindness, understanding and tolerance gained the affection of the Samoans, who built a road to his house which they called "The Road of the Loving Heart."
Stevenson said that novels are to adults what play is to children, and that one of the legitimate and necessary functions of literature is to supply adventure for people who lead unexciting lives.
"Treasure Island" was first written as a little tale about pirates and buried treasure. It had been written to amuse his stepson and was first published in a boy's magazine. Then it was revised for book publishers.
The hero of "Treasure Island" is a boy named Jim Hawkins. The two villains are Long John Silver and a blind man named Pew. The hair raising search for buried treasure is told in the book which has been enjoyed through the years by millions of readers.