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13 November 1850
Birth of Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson in Edinburgh into an upper-middle class Presbyterian family. |
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1864
He wrote his first novel, The Plague Cellar at the age of 14. |
1867 – 1871
A student of “Science and Technology” but his underlying dream was to be an author. |
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March 1871 He gave up his scientific studies and signed up to read law. This was a terrible deception for his father… |
January 1873 He declared that he was atheist. Relations with his parents deteriorated seriously. |
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1873 – 1874
Publication of his first essays, which met with praise from critics. |
Summer1875
Passed his law exams and became a lawyer. Visit to Barbizon with his cousin Bob and his painter friends. |
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Autumn 1875
Failure of his first cases at the bar. He turned his back on a legal profession. |
End August 1876
Canoe trip along the canals and rivers of Belgium and Northern France. |
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1876 – 1877
A bohemian lifestyle between England and France, where he met up with Fanny again. |
May 1878
Publication of An Inland Voyage. |
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15 August 1878
Departure of Fanny and her children for America. |
September 1878
Visit to Monastier- sur-Gazeille and then a walking tour across the Cévennes. |
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May 1879
Publication of Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. |
7 August 1879 – 30 August 1879
Departure for California, behind his parents’ backs. Voyage in a ship with emigrants and then by train across the American continent. |
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August 1879 – April 1880
Stayed in California, penniless, ill (pleurisy, malaria, serious haemorrhages…) and cut off by his family and friends who disapproved of this trip. He waited for Fanny to get her divorce. |
April 1880
His parents, shocked by his state of health, accepted his marriage. |
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May – July 1880
Marriage on 19 May in the USA. |
29 July 1880
Louis and Fanny travelled to Scotland.. |
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Summer 1880
Summer in the Highlands. |
Autumn 1880 – Winter 1881
Cure in Davos, Switzerland for his health. |
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April – May 1881
Return to Edinburgh, via Paris and Barbizon. |
Summer 1881
Summer in the Highlands. |
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Winter 1881 – 1882
Second winter in Davos. |
October – December 1882
Set up home in the south of France near to Marseille. |
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March 1883
Moved to Hyères, Chalet ‘La Solitudee. |
January 1884
Publication of The Silverado Squatters. |
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June 1884
In very poor health, he returned to England. |
Autumn 1884
Set up home in Bournemouth, south of England.. |
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1885 – 1887
Haemorrhages, fevers, bronchitis… |
8 May 1887
Death of Stevenson’s father, Thomas Stevenson. |
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21 August 1887
Departure of the Stevenson family for America. |
September 1887
Arrival in New York. |
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October 1887
Installation on the banks of Lake Saranac, in the Adirondack mountains. |
April – June 1888
Return to New York. |
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28 January 1888 – 24 January 1889 Departure from San Francisco for the South Seas aboard the Casco avec Fanny, Lloyd, his moth and 6 crew members. Called into the Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu, Tahiti, Hawaii. |
24 January 1889 – 24 June 1889 Stay in Hawaii. Publication of The Master of Ballantrae. Publication of The Wrong Box (written with Lloyd Osbourne). |
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24 June 1889 – February 1890
Voyage on the merchant vessel Equator. |
December 1889
Arrived in Apia, capital of Upolu a Samoan island. |
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February – April 1890
Travelled through the Samoan islands to Sydney aboard a merchant vessel. |
April – August 1890
Boarded an old cargo ship, the Janet Nicholl, to return to the warmth of the tropics. |
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October 1890 Difficult beginnings in Vailima where everything had to be built from scratch. |
January – May 1891
Fanny cleared, burned, dug, planted and oversaw the construction of a new, large house. |
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1892
Political engagement for the Samoans against the Germans, English and Americans in the sector. Nearly banished from the island. |
January 1893
Severely affected by the flu epidemic which ravaged the island. |
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Mid-February 1893
Attempted to return to Sydney where he fell ill immediately upon his arrival, forcing him to return home. |
April 1893
Fanny suffered from depression. |
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End June 1893
War broke out in the islands. Mataafa, chief of the rebels and Stevenson’s friend was deported to the Marshall Islands. |
August 1893
Collapsed further to severe haemorrhages. |
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September 1893
Left for Hawaii to attempt a cure but was forced to return to Vailima. |
1894
Exhausted, he continued to write Saint Ives, an historical novel and Weir of Hermiston. |
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3 December 1894
Stevenson died further to a stroke. |
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