STEVENSON, Robert Louis Balfour (1850-94), Scottish novelist, essayist, and poet, who contributed several classics to the world of children's literature.

Stevenson was born on Nov. 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, the son of an engineer, and studied engineering and then law at the University of Edinburgh. Since childhood, however, Stevenson's natural inclination had been toward literature; eventually he took up letters seriously, soon making his way into the first rank of contemporaneous writers by the excellence of his style.