About Treasure Island
In the fall of 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson found himself stuck indoors through weeks of bad weather. A sickly man, Stevenson did not dare go outside in the cold Scottish autumn rain. However, he did have some comforts. Like an overgrown boy, Stevenson loved to play toy soldiers with his twelve-year-old stepson, Lloyd. The two happily designed great battles on maps they drew themselves. Then one of their maps took on a life of its own. Stevenson sketched out an island, “in the shape of a fat dragon standing up,” as he later described it. He painted in its features with watercolors, and he named it Treasure Island. He told his fascinated stepson tales of the dangerous buccaneers who buried their loot on this lonely patch of earth.
As Stevenson later recalled in an essay entitled “My First Book,” he began to see the characters in his mind’s eye. He imagined the brave doctor, the staunch squire, the plucky young Jim Hawkins, and the dangerous and tricky Long John Silver. Sitting beside a roaring fire, he began to create chapter titles, and before he knew it, he was writing a tale of high adventure. At first he called his story The Sea Cook, but that wasn’t exciting enough. Stevenson realized that the book had to be named for the map — Treasure Island!
His stepson, Lloyd, helped with plot suggestions, and Stevenson’s father, Thomas, also chimed in, all three of them having a wonderful time. Before many weeks had passed, the book was complete. Treasure Island first appeared in serial format in a children’s magazine beginning in October 1881 (under Stevenson’s pen name “Captain George North”), and it was finally published as a book in 1883.
No writer has ever matched this fine tale of life-and-death adventure. Thrilling, frightening, and as fast-paced as a schooner sailing with the wind, it propels the reader along. Like Wishbone, any reader can easily imagine being in Jim Hawkins’s place as he fights pirates, searches for hidden treasure, and learns about friendship, honor, and courage. Stevenson wrote about treasure, all right — and his novel is a treasure we all continue to enjoy.
About Robert Louis Stevenson
Whether in pursuit of love, adventure, or better health, Robert Louis Stevenson spent his adult life traveling and writing about the places he visited. Born in Scotland in 1850, Stevenson spent much of his childhood sick in bed with respiratory problems. For entertainment during his illnesses, he and his father imagined stories of robbers and sailors. As a young man, Stevenson devoted himself to writing, and he published many respected travel books and essays. Inspired by a map he drew to amuse his stepson, Stevenson wrote Treasure Island (1883), his most famous work. He later wrote the popular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Kidnapped (1886). In 1888 he and his family visited a series of tropical islands, hoping that the warm, sunny climate would improve his health. He settled on the Pacific Ocean island of Samoa, where he earned the honorary title of tusitala — “storyteller” — among the natives. He was working on another book when he died suddenly of a stroke in 1894.
About Brad Strickland
Brad Strickland is a great fan of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale Treasure Island -- and also of Wishbone. He was thrilled to have the chance to write the novelization of the WISHBONE episode Salty Dog, one of the plucky pup’s greatest adventures.
Brad has written or cowritten twenty-three novels, fifteen of them for young readers. One of these works is another WISHBONE tale, Be a Wolf !, inspired by the eighth-century English epic poem Beowulf. Brad’s first novel for young readers was Dragon’s Plunder, a story of pirates, dragons, and — of course — treasure. With his wife, Barbara, Brad has written stories for the Star Trek and Are You Afraid of the Dark? book series. He also cowrote several thrillers with the late John Bellairs.
In everyday life, Brad teaches English at Gainesville College, in Gainesville, Georgia. He loves to go sailing, although he rarely has time to do so. Once, on a short voyage out into the Gulf of Mexico, he even got to steer the Governor Stone, a real schooner that was built in 1877. Brad is also an amateur photographer and actor. He and Barbara have two children, Jonathan and Amy, and a whole houseful of pets, including ferrets, a bunny, cats, and two dogs, neither of whom talks — at least not when Brad is listening.
