Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1850 – Vailima, Samoa, 1894) was a Scottish author, poet and musician. His most famous works are the novels Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), the collection of short stories New Arabian Nights (1882) and the collection of poems A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885).

Stevenson was a literary celebrity during his lifetime and has been admired by many other famous authors. He now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. The English critic and author G. K. Chesterton said of Stevenson that he “seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins”.