Robert Louis Stevenson's Philosophy of Living with Illness and Mortality

He apprenticed in his family's lighthouse engineering business but had no interest in the trade. Instead, he had 'made his own private determination to be an author'

Sickly, ambitious, and entirely unknown, he traded sleep for writing

Outside the open window stood the celebrated towers of his family's achievements that still illuminate Scotland's rocky coastline

On summer break from his university studies, a young Robert Louis Stevenson worked late into the night