Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850, to Thomas, a civil engineer, and Margaret Isabella (Balfour) Stevenson. He was six years old when he first displayed his literary talents during a competition against his cousins. After the competition, one of his uncles presented him with a prize for his history of Moses. At sixteen, his father published his first work, The Pentland Rising, an account of a 1666 rebellion by Covenanters. Both works had a religious focus, reflecting the influence of his parents. However, while attending Edinburgh University, Stevenson denounced his Presbyterian upbringing and declared himself to be agnostic. His parents were further disappointed when he discarded his plans to become an engineer and spent a good deal of his time at the university exploring the brothels and pubs of Edinburgh. During his university years, Stevenson gained a reputation for outrageous behavior and earned the name "Velvet Jacket" for his unconventional style of dress.

Stevenson read authors like William Hazlitt and Daniel Defoe at the university and subsequently adopted their styles in his early writing. While working on his law degree, he saw several of his essays published in various periodicals. His first two books, An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879) were based on travels that he enjoyed throughout his life. Although Stevenson earned a degree in law at the university and continued his studies in a law office in Edinburgh, he never practiced the profession, preferring instead to travel and to write. Due to the ill health that plagued him all his life, his parents supported his lifestyle and his writing career, which they considered to be a more restful occupation.

The 1883 publication of his novel Treasure Island brought Stevenson worldwide public acclaim. The adventure tale also earned him enough money to devote himself to his writing. Stevenson gained more attention with the publication in 1886 of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He reported that the idea for the novel sprang from a dream he had about a man transforming into a monster after drinking a potion made from white powder. While dreaming this "fine bogey tale," as he called it, Stevenson started to scream and was subsequently awoken by his wife, Fanny. The next morning he began to write and three days later he had completed a first draft. After a negative response from his wife, Stevenson threw the manuscript in the fire and began a rewrite which he completed in another three-day period and revised during the next six weeks.

The subject of evil, explored so creatively in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, had fascinated Stevenson throughout his career and had appeared in several of his works. Although he had rejected the Calvinist doctrines his parents taught him, the focus of the interplay of good and evil continued to influence his imagination. A study of this subject in relation to the unconscious and dreams appears prominently in two of his critically acclaimed short stories, "Thrawn Janet" and "Markheim."

Stevenson died on December 3, 1894, in Apia, Samoa. Although Stevenson gained acclaim as a poet, an essayist, and a travel writer as well as a novelist, he will be remembered for his most popular works: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Treasure Island.