Stevenson

Stevenson, ROBERT LOUIS (1850-1894), novelist, was born in Edinburgh, and was originally intended for the profession of engineering, with which his ancestors haa been connected for generations. He studied at Edinburgh University, and was called to the Bar, where he was unsuccessful. Turning his attention to literature, he soon gave signs of the remarkable genius now universally recognised. His works were numerous, and the exquisite style in which they are written is almost their chiefest merit. Among them may be mentioned his Travels with a Donkey, (1879), Virginibus Puerisque (1881), New Arabian Nights (1882), Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1885), Kidnapped (1886), The Master of Ballantrae (1891), The Wrecker (1892), Catriona (1893), Island Nights' Entertainments (1893), The Ebb Tide (1894), Weir of Hermiston (18966), and St. Ives (1897). His Letters (edited by Sidney Colvin) appeared in 1899.