Robert Louis Stevenson
Scottish novelist and travel writer · 1850–1894
Who is Robert Louis Stevenson?
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer best known for Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Suffering from chronic lung illness for much of his life, he sailed for the South Pacific in 1888 aboard the chartered yacht Casco, seeking a warmer climate and new material as a writer. During this voyage he spent several weeks in French Polynesia, including an extended stay of about two months at the village of Tautira on Tahiti, where he recovered from a serious illness under the care of the local sub-chief and was informally adopted into the community. He continued voyaging through the Pacific over the following years, visiting the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Hawaiian, and Gilbert Islands before settling permanently in Samoa in 1890, where he remained a prominent public figure until his death in 1894. His Pacific travels and observations, including his time in Tahiti, were collected in the travelogue In the South Seas, published posthumously in 1896.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Robert Louis Stevenson" (biographical summary) · Robert Louis Stevenson, In the South Seas (1896), full text · Wikipedia, "In the South Seas" (publication history)