Robert Louis Stevenson

Abstract

Stevenson was troubled throughout his life by ill-health. He developed early on a bronchial condition, which later led to tuberculosis of the lungs. He was born in Edinburgh, and educated at its university. He abandoned engineering for law, and became an advocate in 1875. Determined to be a writer, he neglected the law, adopted a Bohemian way of life and frequented the city’s demi-monde. Leslie Stephen introduced him to W. E. Henley with whom he composed a number of unsuccessful plays.