Stevenson, Robert Louis: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. A sickly child, he was often confined to bed and continued to suffer from poor health throughout his lifetime. In college, Stevenson rebelled against his conservative and religious upbringing and pursued an unconventional writer's life. Stevenson was a world traveler, and his first book, An Inland Voyage (1878) chronicles his canoeing adventures in France. His voyages took him as far as California, Hawaii, and the Samoan Islands. While bedridden with severe respiratory issues, Stevenson produced his best-known works, the children's classics Treasure Island (1883) and Kidnapped (1886), and the allegorical thriller Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and & Mr. Hyde (1886). Robert Louis Stevenson died on December 3, 1894 in Vailima, Samoa.

Deborah Lutz is the Kelly Professor in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature at Pennsylvania State University. A Guggenheim, Cullman, and NEH Fellow, she is the author of The Brontë Cabinet, Pleasure Bound, and other works. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals, including the New York Times. She lives in Pennsylvania and New York City.