Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the only child of Thomas and Margaret Stevenson, was born and educated in Edinburgh. Rather than following his father's footsteps as an engineer and lighthouse builder, Stevenson devoted himself to literature, establishing his reputation as an essayist, travel writer and as the author of Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). Stevenson travelled in Europe and the United States, and in 1888 he and his wife Fanny embarked on the first of three voyages searching Pacific waters, before settling in Samoa in 1889-90. Stevenson's Pacific writings express his ambition to form relationships with islanders and to explore a world in transit. He died of a cerebral stroke whilst writing Weir of Hermiston (1896). About the editor: Robert Hoskins is an Associate Professor of Music at Massey University, New Zealand. He is the author of three books on colonial balladry, including a biography of goldfields entertainer Charles Thatcher, and three books on English theatre music, including one on Samuel Arnold, the most popular composer in late eighteenth-century London, and others that explore such issues as the Gothic revival and the abolition of the slave trade. He is a music publisher and editor, and a contributor to New Grove, New Grove Opera, The Blackwell History of English Music, and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. He established the Massey University research center for Eighteenth-Century music that pools international scholarship.

Contents include: The Bottle Imp -- A Samoan Scrapbook -- Address to Samoan Students, Malua -- Talofa, Togarewa! -- Two Tahitian Legends -- Plain John Wiltshire on the Situation -- Missions in the South Seas -- The Labour Traffic -- Address to the Samoan Chiefs, Vailima -- Sophia Scarlet.