Treasure Island

”[Treasure Island is] the realization of an ideal, that which is promised in its provocative and beckoning map; a vision not only of white skeletons but also green palm trees and sapphire seas.“–G.K. Chesterton

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was frequently ill, interrupting his education at Edinburgh University. He lived a bohemian life, traveling around Europe and writing An Inland Journey (1878) and Travels with a Donkey (1879). Stevenson found success with Treasure Island (1883). The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped appeared in 1886, followed by The Black Arrow (1888) and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). In 1888, he traveled to the South Seas, visiting Molokai, and settled in Samoa, where he died.

Patrick Scott is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina and co-editor of Studies in Scottish Literature. From 1996-2011 he was Director of Rare Books and Special Collections at Thomas Cooper Library. His earlier publications include essays on Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Kipling’s Stalky & Co.

Sara Levine is the author of the novel Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She teaches writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.