Happy birthday to Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Novelist, essayist, and poet, he wrote with clarity and warmth about travel, friendship, and the everyday courage of living. He said, “A friend is a gift you give yourself.”

His adventures carried readers to far coasts and deeper hearts. Treasure Island introduced Long John Silver and the pull of the open sea; Kidnapped traced loyalty and identity across the Highlands; and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explored the divided self, “not truly one, but truly two.”

Often ill, he still shaped days with steady work and bright imagination, crafting memorable stories and lyrical poems including A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), a bouquet of childhood wonder. “I know what pleasure is, for I have done good work.”

In later years he settled in Samoa, where the community knew him as Tusitala, the teller of tales. His pages still remind us: the best things in life are nearest — breath, light, flowers, and the plain duties that teach us how to love.