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Tusitala Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)

Of the many famous sons and daughters of Edinburgh, Robert Louis Stevenson is among the best known. Most people have read or know Treasure Island, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Indeed these tales have become part of Western Culture with their iconic characters such as Long John Silver and Blind Pew. The recent Pirates of the Caribbean Film uses Stevenson's infamous 'black spot' in the plot, once again emphasising the haunting and unforgettable quality of Stevenson's writing. What is less generally known, perhaps, is that Stevenson was also a fine writer of short stories and essays, and a formidable journalist. He was also a lively letter writer. Writing defined him, as his Samoan neighbours recognised with their special name for him: 'Tusi Tala' (Teller of Tales)

He was born in 1850 at 8 Howard Place, Inverleith, a short distance from the Royal Botanic Gardens. In 1853 the family moved across the way to 1 Inverleith Terrace. Though larger, the new house was damp and more exposed than the Stevensons' former home and medical advice suggested the family move to a more salubrious home. When Louis (as he was always called) was about seven the family moved up the hill to 17 Heriot Row.

Intended for lighthouse engineering, like his father, Robert rebelled. Even the law course at Edinburgh University was not to his taste. He made a few attempts to practise, and did have one client, but he regarded the completion of his studies as a fulfilment of a bargain with his father. Nevertheless he was very proud of a brass plate reading R L Stevenson Advocate which was placed at No. 17. Writing was his passion. Stevenson was a bohemian. He did not share his family's strong religious beliefs. Yet his first printed work was The Pentland Rising, set in the seventeenth century, which dealt with the Covenanters.

He fell in love with a married American woman, Fanny Osbourne. They were married in 1880, after she obtained a divorce. Shortly afterwards, Stevenson was diagnosed with tuberculosis. For the next few years the family travelled. Stevenson wrote voraciously but it was never easy. Excessive writing spells produced strong emotions and these, in turn, serious haemorrhages.

He travelled widely in the United States and the islands of the Pacific, finally settling in Samoa. Although in the Pacific, he wrote stories set mainly in Scotland. His continuing theme perhaps being one of exile and 'not being at home', an idea of course examined in Freud’s famous essay on the 'Unheimlich.' When he died suddenly, of cerebral haemorrhage, he was only 44 years old. He was writing The Weir of Hermiston, a novel once again about the divided self and ironically his probable masterpiece.

His reputation followed him to Samoa. The local people revered him and named him 'Tusi tala' meaning 'Teller of Tales.'