Robert louis stevenson biography timeline book
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She returned to California to get a divorce, and in 1879 RLS followed her.
As a child, Stevenson suffered from tuberculosis. His first book, An Inland Voyage, was an account of a journey through Belguim and France in a canoe designed by John MacGregor. And on 3 December 1894 Stevenson died of a brain haemorrhage at the family home in Samoa.
The cruise lasts till 24 January 1889 in Honolulu
1889
June
15: Publication of The Wrong Box with Lloyd
24: Leaves Honolulu on the Equator (cruise lasts till 7 December 1889 in Apia)
September
20: Publication of The Master of Ballantrae
December
7: The Equator arrives at Apia on the island of Upolo, the largest island of Samoa.
He left unfinished what many consider his greatest work, Weir of Hermiston.
RLS's grave on Mt Vaea, Samoa carries the following quotation from his Old Mortality, published in 1884: Here he lies where he longed to be; home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.
You can read the full text of Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson online on Undiscovered Scotland.
Reading this Mozartian and mercurial writer remains for many as for Borges, despite critical neglect, quite simply “a form of happiness”.
Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
*With reference points from Stevenson’s life italicized in green.*
1866
The Pentland Rising (RLS’s first published essay)
1867 – Attended Edinburgh University as a civil engineering major.
1871 – Begins to study law.
1873
Roads (his first paid publication)
1875 –finished university; passed Scottish Bar; a year later meets Fanny Osbourne.
1878
An Inland Voyage (his first book);
Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes
1879
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
1880 – Married Fanny Osbourne in San Francisco, California;
honeymoons in Napa Valley for 9 weeks; then returns to Scotland.
1881
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (published as a book);
Treasure Island (serialized in Young Folks magazine in 1881-1882)
1882
Familiar Studies of Men and Books;
New Arabian Nights;
1883
Treasure Island (first published as book);
Across the Plains (published in Longman’s Magazine);
The Black Arrow (published in Young Folks magazine);
Silverado Squatters (published in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine)
1884
The Body Snatchers (published in Pall Mall magazine)
1885
A Child’s Garden of Verses;
Prince Otto;
1886
The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;
Kidnapped;
1887
The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables;
Underwoods;
Memories and Portraits;
May 8th Thomas Stevenson dies;August 22nd Louis, Fanny, Lloyd and Margret Stevenson sail for New York and spend the winter at Saranac Lake.
1888
Memoir of Fleming Jenkin;
The Black Arrow: A Tale of Two Roses;
The family charters the schooner Casco and sails out of the
San Francisco Bay to the South Seas.
1889
The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter’s Tale;
The Wrong Box (in conjunction with step-son Lloyd Osbourne);
The Stevensons arrived in Hawaii and reunited with the Strong family;
his mother returns to Scotland while the rest continue on in the South Seas and Australia
1890
Ballads;
Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde of Honolulu;
RLS purchases the Vailima Estate on the island of Upolu, Samoa.
1891
The South Seas (published in The Sun in New York);
The Bottle Imp (published in the New York Herald);
1892
The Beach of Falesà (published in the Illustrated London News);
The Wrecker (co-authored by Lloyd Osbourne);
A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa;
Across the Plains With Other Memories and Essays;
1893
Island Nights’ Entertainment;
Catriona (in the US it was published as David Balfour);
1894
The Ebb-Tide;
December 3 Stevenson suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and dies.
Posthumous Publications
1895
Amateur Emigrant;
Songs of Travel and other Verses;
1896
Weir of Hermiston (an unfinished novel);
In the South Seas;
Fables;
Lay Morals;
1897 – May 14, Margaret Stevenson dies in Edinburgh.
1897
St.
He later describes the walk in “An Epilogue to An Inland Voyage” (1888)
1876
January
8-17: Walking tour of Ayr, Maybole, Girvan, Ballantrae, Stranraer, Glenluce, and Wigton (described in “A Winter’s Walk in Carrick and Galloway” [1896])
August
25: At Antwerp. Although Mataafa is defeated, RLS supports him
September
1: Publication of Catriona
12: Travels to Honolulu on SS Mariposa.
Writing when the period of the three-volume novel (dominant from about 1840 to 1880) was coming to an end, he seems to have written everything except a traditional Victorian novel: plays, poems, essays, literary criticism, literary theory, biography, travelogue, reportage, romances, boys’ adventure stories, fantasies, fables, and short stories.
The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 3 November 1850. His popularity with critics continued to the First World War. He then had the misfortune to be followed by the Modernists who needed to cut themselves off from any tradition; Stevenson was felt to be one of the most constraining of immediately-preceding authors for his sheer ability, and one of the most insidious for his play with popular genres and for his preference for “romance” over the serious novel.
This was published in January 1886, and 40,000 copies had been sold by June. Like the other writers who were asserting the serious artistic nature of the novel at this time he writes in a careful, almost poetic style – yet he provocatively combines this with an interest in popular genres.
His biggest contemporary hit was probably The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Ives: Being The Adventures of a French Prisoner in England;
1914 – February 19, Fanny Stevenson dies in Santa Barbara, California.
1915 – June, Fanny buried with Stevenson on the summit of Mount Vaea, Samoa.
1850
November
13: Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson [from about 1868: Robert Louis Balfour; from about 1873: Robert Louis] born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh
January
Family move to 1 (now 9) Inverleith Terrace, Edinburgh
December
13: Baptized
1852
May
Alison Cunningham (“Cummy”) becomes RLS’s nurse (remaining in the household until 14 November 1872)
1856
November
13: Receives a toy theatre as birthday present from his uncle and aunt, David and Jane Stevenson.
November-December
Dictates “The History of Moses” to his mother
1857
May
Family move to 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh
September
30: Goes to school for the first time: Mr Henderson’s Preparatory School, India Street (attends a few weeks because of poor health)
1859
June
14: Three-week holiday with his parents (till 6 July): Bridge of Allan, Perth and Dundee
October
Returns to Mr Henderson’s Preparatory School, India Street
1861
October
1: Starts attending Edinburgh Academy (for 15 months)
1862
July
RLS and parents visit Bad Homburg vor der Höhe (then Homburg), the capital of Hesse-Homburg, Germany.
He was just 44 years old and according to many he was approaching the height of his powers as an author. His father was Thomas Stevenson his grandfather Robert Stevenson, both members of the "Lighthouse Stevensons" the family who between them were responsible for building most of Scotland's lighthouses (and many more beyond these shores).
Here he writes the opening of “The Travelling Companion” (a Doubles story later destroyed) and begins work on The Sea Cook (later to become Treasure Island [1883])
24: Two chapters of The Sea Cook written
October
1: Young Folks magazine begins the serial publication of Treasure Island under the name Captain George North
18: Arrives Davos where he winters again for his health.
The second part was published as “Across the Plains” in 1883 – it was later included in Across the Plains (1892).
October
“The Story of a Lie” is published in the New Quarterly Review
December
12: Fanny divorces Sam Osbourne
22: Moves to 608 Bush Street, San Francisco (till May 1880)
1880
March
c.
He will publish the travel articles RLS writes on his journey in the South Seas
25: Serialization of The Black Arrow begins in the Philadelphia Press
26: Fanny leaves for California
April
13: Leaves Saranac lake for New York
16: Arrives in New York, staying at the Hotel St.
Stephen
May
2: Goes to Manasquan, New Jersey, staying at Union House (an inn) with his mother, where they spend much time with Stevenson’s friend from his French bohemian days, Will Lowe, and his French wife Berthe (who later translated Treasure Island into French in 1890)
28: Returns to New York
June
2: Leaves for California, by train via Chicago and Salt Lake City
7: Arrives in San Francisco, staying at the Occidental Hotel
26: Moves on board the Casco
27: The Casco leaves for a cruise of the Pacific islands, including the Marquesas, the Paumotus and Tahiti.
During this period he wrote the novel The Wrong Box with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. Henley accuses Fanny of plagiarizing the story from Katharine de Mattos (RLS’s cousin and Bob Stevenson’s sister). RLS and family stay with an American trader, H.J. Moors, Beach Road, Apia
9: Farewell dinner for the captain and crew of the Equator, Tivoli Hotel
1890
January
10: Signs the deed for the purchase of Vailima Estate, Apia, Samoa
February
4: Leaves Apia on the Lübeck
13: Arrives in Sydney (stays at the Union Club)
April-July
Leaves Sydney on 11 April on the Janet Nicoll, cruising Auckland, New Zealand, the Tokelau Islands, Cooks Islands, Ellice Islands, Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Hebrideans and Noumea, amongst other places The cruise finishes on 26 July 1890 in Noumea, New Caledonia.
May: Publication of Father Damien: An Open Letter to Reverend Doctor Hyde
27 July: Fanny and Lloyd depart for Sydney, RLS stays in Noumea.
August
2: RLS Leaves Noumea
7: Arrives in Sydney (stays at the Union Club, working on The Wrecker [1892], The Ebb-Tide [1894], Island Nights’ Entertainments [1893] and Ballads [1890])
September
During this month, the Stevenson family settle at Vailima
4: Leaves Sydney for Apia with Fanny on the Lübeck
15: Arrives in Apia
December
Publication of Ballads
1891
January
6: Leaves Apia for Sydney on the Lübeck
20: Arrives in Sydney
Lloyd and RLS’s mother also join RLS in Sydney.
February
6: In the South Seas begins serialization in Black and White
8: “The Bottle Imp” begins serialization in the New York Herald
18: Leaves Sydney with his mother on the Lübeck
March
1: Returns to Samoa with mother (Lloyd had returned earlier)
April
2-13: Sails around the Samoan islands in Nukunona
May
16: Margaret Stevenson moves into Vailima
August
Serialization of The Wrecker (with Lloyd) begins in Scribner
November
7: Finishes writing The Wrecker (with Lloyd)
1892
In 1892, RLS is increasingly involved in Samoan politics, writing letters to The Times expressing his views on the Samoan situation
February
13: Begins writing Catriona (1893)
April
6: Publication of Across the Plains
June
25: Publication of The Wrecker (with Lloyd)
July
2: Serialization of “The Beach of Falesa” begins in Illustrated London News
August
6: Graham Balfour arrives at Vailima and stays with the Stevensons for most of the last two and a half years before RLS’s death
8: Publication of A Footnote to History
September
26: Finishes Catriona
1893
February
4: “Isle of Voices” begins serialization in National Observer
18: Leaves Apia on the S.S.
Mariposa with Fanny and Belle
24: Arrives in Auckland
28: Arrives in Sydney (stays at the Oxford Hotel)
March
20: Leaves Sydney on the Mariposa
30: Returns to Vailima, working on Weir of Hermiston (1896) and The Ebb-Tide (1894)
April
6: Publication of Island Nights’ Entertainments
June
5: Finishes The Ebb-Tide; sends first ten chapters to Sidney Colvin in London
18: Sends last two chapters of The Ebb-Tide to Colvin
July
9-18: War between the Samoan chiefs Mataafa and Laupepa.