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Robert Louis Stevenson was the only son of Thomas Stevenson a civil engineer, and his wife Margaret Isabella Balfour. Born in Iverheth Edinburgh, at number 8 Howards Place, not far from theRoyal Botanic Gardens. Stevenson never enjoyed good health as a child, but loved poetry from a young age.

When living at Herriots Row as a child it inspired many of his poems including The Childs Garden Of Verse. He was destined for the engineering profession, but as he got older Stevenson had no desire, to follow in his fathers footsteps, due to his health problems and his desire to write, so he and his father agreed he could turn to the law profession instead and though he was called to the Bar in 1875 he never actually practiced.

His most famous novels, that he was greatly praised for were Treasure Island published in 1892, Kidnapped and The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde published in 1886.

In 1876 Stevenson went to California and there met Fanny Osbourne, a then married lady seperated from her husband. His parents disapproved of the union but later after his marriage to her the family became reconciled.
Suffering from tuberculosis and ill health he traveled to the Pacific and settled in Samoa where he lived the last four years of his life