Editing Robert Louis Stevenson (section)

===Childhood and youth===
[[File:Robert Louis Stevenson daguerreotype portrait as a child.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Daguerreotype]] portrait of Stevenson as a child]]
[[File:Robert Louis Stevenson childhood home, Heriot Row.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Stevenson's childhood home in Heriot Row]]

Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, [[Edinburgh]], Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to [[Thomas Stevenson]] (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–1897). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and he dropped "Balfour" in 1873.<ref>Mehew (2004). The spelling "Lewis" is said to have been rejected because his father violently disliked another person of the same name, and the new spelling was not accompanied by a change of pronunciation (Balfour (1901) I, 29 n. 1.</ref><ref>Furnas (1952), 23–4; Mehew (2004)).</ref>

Lighthouse design was the family's profession; Thomas's father (Robert's grandfather) was the civil engineer [[Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)|Robert Stevenson]], and Thomas's brothers (Robert's uncles) [[Alan Stevenson|Alan]] and [[David Stevenson (engineer)|David]] were in the same field.<ref name="Paxton 2004">Paxton (2004).</ref> Thomas's maternal grandfather [[Thomas Smith (engineer)|Thomas Smith]] had been in the same profession. However, Robert's mother's family were [[gentry]], tracing their lineage back to Alexander Balfour, who had held the lands of [[Lindores|Inchrye]] in Fife in the fifteenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6pTWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22alexander+Balfour%22+%22robert+louis+stevenson%22+inchrye&pg=PT24|isbn = 9781786568007|title = The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson by Sir Graham Balfour - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)|date = 17 July 2017|publisher = Delphi Classics|access-date = 19 March 2023|archive-date = 18 April 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230418123628/https://books.google.com/books?id=6pTWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22alexander+Balfour%22+%22robert+louis+stevenson%22+inchrye&pg=PT24|url-status = live}}</ref> His mother's father, [[Lewis Balfour]] (1777–1860), was a minister of the [[Church of Scotland]] at nearby [[Colinton]],<ref>Balfour (1901), 10–12; Furnas (1952), 24; Mehew (2004).</ref> and her siblings included physician [[George William Balfour]] and marine engineer [[James Balfour (engineer)|James Balfour]]. Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his maternal grandfather's house. "Now I often wonder what I inherited from this old minister," Stevenson wrote. "I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them."<ref>''[[Memories and Portraits]]'' (1887), [https://web.archive.org/web/20080803075907/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/stevenson/robert_louis/s848mp/chapter7.html Chapter VII. The Manse] .</ref>

Lewis Balfour and his daughter both had weak chests, so they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp, chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1851.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Robert Louis Stevenson Timeline (born Nov. 13th 1850 in Edinburgh, died Dec. 3rd 1894 in Samoa) |url=http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/timeline |access-date=14 May 2012 |website=robert-louis-stevenson.org |archive-date=14 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414112818/http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/timeline |url-status=live }}</ref> The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six years old, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was 11. Illness was a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin.<ref>Furnas (1952), 25–8; Mehew (2004).</ref> Contemporaneous views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was [[bronchiectasis]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holmes |first=Lowell |url=https://archive.org/details/treasuredislands00holm |title=Treasured Islands: Cruising the South Seas with Robert Louis Stevenson |publisher=Sheridan House, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=1-57409-130-1}}</ref> or [[sarcoidosis]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sharma |first=O. P. |year=2005 |title=Murray Kornfeld, American College of Chest Physician, and sarcoidosis: a historical footnote: 2004 Murray Kornfeld Memorial Founders Lecture |journal=Chest |volume=128 |issue=3 |pages=1830–35 |doi=10.1378/chest.128.3.1830 |pmid=16162793}}</ref> The family also summered in the [[spa town]] of [[Bridge of Allan]], in [[North Berwick]], and in [[Peebles]] for the sake of Stevenson's and his mother's health; "Stevenson's cave" in Bridge of Allan was reportedly the inspiration for the character [[Ben Gunn (Treasure Island)|Ben Gunn]]'s cave dwelling in Stevenson's 1883 novel ''[[Treasure Island]]''.<ref name="BridgeofAllan">{{Cite web |title=RLS in Stirlingshire |url=https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/?page_id=22021 |access-date=3 September 2023 |website=robert-louis-stevenson.org |archive-date=11 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230611000505/https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/?page_id=22021 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:The Bookman RLS special 1913 illustration at page 049.png|thumb|"My second mother, my first wife.
The angel of my infant life—
From the sick child, now well and old,
Take, nurse, the little book you hold!" ⁠Dedication of "A Child's Garden of Verses": ⁠⁠"To Alison Cunningham. From her Boy."<ref name="Bookman1913">{{citation|title=Robert Louis Stevenson: A Bookman Extra Number, 1913 |date=1913 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |language=en}}</ref>]]
Stevenson's parents were both devout [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]], but the household was not strict in its adherence to [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] principles. His nurse Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy)<ref name="NYT1913">{{Cite news |date=10 August 1913 |title=Stevenson's Nurse Dead: Alison Cunningham ("Cummy") lived to be over 91 years old |page=3 |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/08/10/100273280.pdf |access-date=13 June 2018 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308035108/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/08/10/100273280.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> was more fervently religious. Her mix of Calvinism and folk beliefs were an early source of nightmares for the child, and he showed a precocious concern for religion.<ref>Furnas (1952), 28–32; Mehew (2004).</ref> But she also cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from [[John Bunyan]] and the Bible as he lay sick in bed and telling tales of the [[Covenanters]]. Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in "The Land of Counterpane" in ''[[A Child's Garden of Verses]]'' (1885),<ref>Available at [http://www.bartleby.com/188/117.html Bartleby] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609081833/http://www.bartleby.com/188/117.html |date=9 June 2008 }} and elsewhere.</ref> dedicating the book to his nurse.<ref>Furnas (1952), 29; Mehew (2004).</ref>

Stevenson was an only child, both strange-looking and eccentric, and he found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at age 6, a problem repeated at age 11 when he went on to the [[Edinburgh Academy]]; but he mixed well in lively games with his cousins in summer holidays at [[Colinton]].<ref>Furnas (1952), 34–6; Mehew (2004). Alison Cunningham's recollection of Stevenson balances the picture of an oversensitive child, "like other bairns, whiles very naughty": Furnas (1952), 30.</ref> His frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, so he was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, learning at age 7 or 8, but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse,<ref name="Mehew 2004">Mehew (2004).</ref> and he compulsively wrote stories throughout his childhood. His father was proud of this interest; he had also written stories in his spare time until his own father had found them and had told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business."<ref name="Paxton 2004" /> He paid for the printing of Robert's first publication at 16, entitled ''The Pentland Rising: A Page of History, 1666''. It was an account of the [[Covenanters#Restoration and the "Killing Time"|Covenanters' rebellion]] and was published in 1866, the 200th anniversary of the event.<ref>Balfour (1901) I, 67; Furnas (1952), pp. 43–45.</ref>