Treasure Island and Kidnapped: Stevenson's Adventures

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Stevenson wrote about the origins of Treasure Island himself in an essay, "My First Book" (1894), which is the main source for the map story. The real identity of the Appin murderer has never been proven; local tradition names other suspects.

An Edinburgh childhood

established Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850, the only child of Thomas Stevenson, one of the family of engineers who built Scotland's lighthouses. Often ill as a child, he was expected to follow his father into engineering, then studied law, but turned to writing. Travel books, essays and stories came first; adventure fiction made his name.

A map on a rainy day

established In the summer of 1881, staying at Braemar during wet weather, Stevenson drew a map of an imaginary island with his twelve-year-old stepson Lloyd Osbourne. As he later wrote in "My First Book", the map suggested the story. He began writing at once, reading chapters to the family each evening. It was serialised in the boys' magazine Young Folks from 1881 to 1882 as "The Sea Cook", under the pen name "Captain George North", and published as a book, Treasure Island, in 1883.

established The serial came about through the Scottish writer Alexander Japp, who visited Braemar, heard Stevenson read the day's chapters aloud, and took the opening chapters to James Henderson, owner of Young Folks. Stevenson was paid £30 for the serial, which made little impression on the magazine's readers. He revised the text for Cassell, who in a deal negotiated by W. E. Henley paid £100 for the book plus £20 for every thousand copies sold after the first 4,000. Stevenson called Henley "the Prince of Extortioners". The book sold 12,000 copies in its first three years, respectable but far below the 31,000 that Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines sold in its first year in 1886.

shared The famous map has its own history. In "My First Book" Stevenson says the original map was lost after he sent it to the publishers and he had to redraw it. The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland credits the Edinburgh mapmakers Bartholomew with designing the frontispiece map for the 1883 edition.

The making of the pirate

established Narrated by young Jim Hawkins, the novel follows a voyage to recover Captain Flint's buried treasure, threatened by mutinous pirates led by the ship's cook, Long John Silver. Stevenson admitted that Silver was partly modelled on his friend the poet W. E. Henley, who had lost a leg. The book's details, including the treasure map marked with an X, Silver's parrot screeching "Pieces of eight!", the black spot, the song "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest" and the marooned Ben Gunn, became the basic vocabulary of pirate fiction and film.

Kidnapped and the Appin Murder

established Kidnapped (1886) follows David Balfour, a young Lowlander cheated of his inheritance by his uncle and kidnapped onto a ship. Shipwrecked off Mull, he crosses the Highlands with Alan Breck Stewart, a Jacobite exile, after both are suspected of the murder of a government agent.

established The story is built around a real event. On 14 May 1752 Colin Campbell of Glenure, the government factor managing forfeited Jacobite estates in Appin, was shot dead in the Wood of Lettermore. Alan Breck Stewart, a real Jacobite, was suspected but escaped. James Stewart of the Glens was tried at Inveraray before a Campbell-dominated jury, with the Duke of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell, presiding, convicted as an accessory and hanged at Ballachulish on 8 November 1752. The trial has long been regarded as a miscarriage of justice.

traditional Local tradition holds that the identity of the real killer was passed down secretly among the Stewarts of Appin. Various names have been suggested, but nothing has been proven.

Legacy

established Stevenson continued David Balfour's story in Catriona (1893). Both Treasure Island and Kidnapped have been adapted many times for film, television and the stage. Stevenson spent his last years in Samoa, where he died in 1894. Edinburgh celebrates him with an annual RLS Day on his birthday, 13 November.

• Treasure Island began with a map drawn on a rainy holiday in Braemar.
• It was first published under the pen name "Captain George North".
• Long John Silver was partly based on the poet W. E. Henley.
• The Appin Murder in Kidnapped really happened, in 1752.
• Alan Breck Stewart was a real man who was never caught.
• Stevenson's family built Scotland's lighthouses.

• Disputed: Who really killed Colin Campbell of Glenure. Alan Breck Stewart, a real Jacobite, was suspected but never caught, and local tradition names other suspects. The identity of the murderer has never been proven.
• Myth: Stevenson invented every pirate cliché. His treasure map, black spot and parrot crying "Pieces of eight!" became the basic vocabulary of pirate fiction and film. He admitted that Long John Silver was partly modelled on his friend W. E. Henley.
• Myth: Kidnapped is a factual account. It is fiction built around the real Appin Murder of 1752. The trial of James Stewart of the Glens is long regarded as a miscarriage of justice.
• Disputed: What happened to the original treasure map. In "My First Book" Stevenson says the original was lost and he had to redraw it, while The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland credits Bartholomew with designing the frontispiece map for the 1883 edition.