Kitchen Sink DramasThe Reading Room
 |
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894) Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was raised a sickly child in Edinburgh, the son of a lighthouse engineer. His storytelling skills were first developed during long periods of convalescence spent reading or dictating stories to his nurse Cummy, to whom he dedicated his popular anthology A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885). Plagued by ill health for most of his life, Stevenson spent time in the warmer climates of France, California and the South Pacific, but wrote of most of his bestsellers, including Kidnapped, Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Bournemouth where he had a summer residence. The inspiration for his famous tale of pirates and buried treasure came from a map he and his young stepson drew during a rainy holiday, which he then developed into a narrative to read to his family. Stevenson originally called the story The Sea Cook, but it was changed on the advice of an editor. Treasure Island was first serialised in a children’s magazine and published as a book in 1883.
Authors’ BiographiesClick to read more KATHERINE MANSFIELD |