STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS (BALFOUR)

born Nov. 13, 1850, Edinburgh died Dec. 3, 1894, Vailima, Samoa Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, best known for his novels Treasure Island (1881), Kidnapped (1886), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). Major Works: Tales and novels. New Arabian Nights, 2 vol. (1882; the stories in vol. 1 appeared as Latter-Day Arabian Nights, 1878; those in vol. 2 had appeared in The Cornhill and other magazines); Treasure Island (1883; serialized in a slightly different form in Young Folks, 188182); More New Arabian Nights, with Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson (1885); Prince Otto (1885); Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886); Kidnapped (1886; in Young Folks, 1886); The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables (1887), including Thrawn Janet and Olalla; The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses (1888; in Young Folks, 1883); The Master of Ballantrae (1889; serialized in Scribner's Magazine, 188889); Catriona (1893), a sequel to Kidnapped; The Ebb-Tide, with Lloyd Osbourne (1894; serialized in To-Day, 189394); Weir of Hermiston (unfinished 1896); St. Ives, completed by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, pseudonym Q (1897). Essays and miscellaneous. An Inland Voyage (1878); Travels with a Donkey in the Cvennes (1879); Virginibus Puerisque (1881), collected essays, mainly from The Cornhill Magazine; Familiar Studies of Men and Books (1882); Memories and Portraits (1887), 16 essays; Across the Plains (1892), 12 essays; Vailima Letters, to Sidney Colvin (1895); From Scotland to Silverado, ed. by J.D. Hart (1966), brings together all Stevenson's previously published and unpublished writings about his trip to California in 187980. Poetry. A Child's Garden of Verses (1885); Underwoods (1887), 38 poems in English, 16 in Scots; Ballads (1890); Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896). Collected Poems, ed. by J. Adam Smith, 2nd ed. (1971), is the standard edition of Stevenson's poetry.