Robert Michael Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction, who wrote more than a hundred books. He was also an accomplished artist: he exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Early life

Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1825, the ninth of ten children and the youngest son, to Alexander Thomson Ballantyne (1776–1847) and his wife Anne (1786–1855). Alexander was a newspaper editor and printer in the family firm of "Ballantyne & Co" based at Paul's Works on the Canongate, and Robert's uncle

James Ballantyne James Ballantyne (15 January 1772 – 26 January 1833) was a Scottish solicitor, editor and publisher who worked for his friend Sir Walter Scott. His brother John Ballantyne (1774–1821) was also with the publishing firm, which is noted fo ...

(1772–1833) was the printer for Scottish author

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

. In 1832-33 the family is known to have been living at 20 Fettes Row, in the northern New Town of Edinburgh. A UK-wide

banking crisis A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks no ...

in 1825 resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business the following year with debts of £130,000, which led to a decline in the family's fortunes. Ballantyne went to Canada aged 16, and spent five years working for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

. He traded with the local

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

and Native Americans for furs, which required him to travel by canoe and sleigh to the areas occupied by the modern-day provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, experiences that formed the basis of his novel ''The Young Fur Traders'' (1856). His longing for family and home during that period impressed him to start writing letters to his mother. Ballantyne recalled in his autobiographical ''Personal Reminiscences in Book Making'' (1893) that "To this long-letter writing I attribute whatever small amount of facility in composition I may have acquired."

Writing career

In 1847 Ballantyne returned to Scotland to discover that his father had died. He published his first book the following year, ''Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America'', and for some time was employed by the publishers Messrs Constable. In 1856 he gave up business to focus on his literary career, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated. ''The Young Fur-Traders'' (1856), ''

The Coral Island ''The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean'' (1857) is a novel written by Scottish author . One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a ...

'' (1857), ''The World of Ice'' (1859), ''Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo Land'' (1857), ''The Dog Crusoe'' (1860), ''The Lighthouse'' (1865), ''Fighting the Whales'' (1866), ''Deep Down'' (1868), '' The Pirate City'' (1874), ''Erling the Bold'' (1869), ''The Settler and the Savage'' (1877), and more than 100 other books followed in regular succession, his rule being to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described. ''The Gorilla Hunters. A tale of the wilds of Africa'' (1861) shares three characters with ''The Coral Island'': Jack Martin, Ralph Rover and Peterkin Gay. Here Ballantyne relied factually on

Paul du Chaillu Paul Belloni Du Chaillu (July 31, 1831 (disputed)April 29, 1903) was a French-American traveler, zoologist, and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern European outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas, and later t ...

's ''Exploration in Equatorial Guinea'', which had appeared early in the same year. ''The Coral Island'' is the most popular of the Ballantyne novels still read and remembered today, but because of one mistake he made in that book, in which he gave an incorrect thickness of coconut shells, he subsequently attempted to gain first-hand knowledge of his subject matter. For instance, he spent some time living with the lighthouse keepers at the Bell Rock before writing ''The Lighthouse'', and while researching for ''Deep Down'' he spent time with the tin miners of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. In 1866 Ballantyne married Jane Grant (c. 1845 – c. 1924), with whom he had three sons and three daughters.

Later life and death

Ballantyne spent his later years in

Harrow, London Harrow () is a large town in Greater London, England, and serves as the principal settlement of the London Borough of Harrow. Lying about north-west of Charing Cross and south of Watford, the entire town including its localities had a popula ...

, before moving to Italy for the sake of his health, possibly suffering from undiagnosed

Ménière's disease Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected initi ...

. He died in Rome on 8 February 1894, and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery there.

Legacy

A Greater London Council plaque commemorates Ballantyne at "Duneaves" on Mount Park Road in Harrow. One of the young men influenced by Ballantyne was

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

(1850–94). He was so impressed with the story of ''The Coral Island'' (1857) that he based portions of his famous book ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

'' (1881) on themes found in Ballantyne. He honoured Ballantyne in the introduction to ''Treasure Island'' with the following poem:

Works

*''The Hudson's Bay Company'' (1848) *''The Young Fur Traders'' (1856) *''Mister Fox. A Children's Nursery Rhyme'' (1856) *''Ungava'' (1857''Ungava'' was dated 1858 but released in 1857: ) *''

'' (1858) *''Martin Rattler'' (1858) *''Handbook to the new Goldfields'' (1858) *''The Dog Crusoe and his Master'' (1860) *''The World of Ice'' (1860) *'' The Gorilla Hunters'' (1861) *''The Golden Dream'' (1861) *''The Red Eric'' (1861) *''Away in the Wilderness'' (1863) *''Fighting the Whales'' (1863) *''The Wild Man of the West'' (1863) *''Man on the Ocean'' (1863) *''Fast in the Ice'' (1863) *''Gascoyne'' (1864) *''The Lifeboat'' (1864) *''Chasing the Sun'' (1864) *''Freaks on the Fells'' (1864) *''The Lighthouse'' (1865) *''Fighting The Flames'' (1867) *''Silver Lake'' (1867) *''Deep Down'' (1868) *''Shifting Winds'' (1868) *''Hunting the Lions'' (1869) *''Over the Rocky Mountains'' (1869) *''Saved by the Lifeboat'' (1869) *''Erling the Bold'' (1869) *''The Battle and the Breeze'' (1869) *''Up in the Clouds'' (1869) *''The Cannibal Islands'' (1869) *''Lost in the Forest'' (1869) *''Digging for Gold'' (1869) *''Sunk at Sea'' (1869) *''The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands'' (1870) *''The Iron Horse'' (1879) *''The Norsemen in the West'' (1872) *''The Pioneers'' (1872) *''Black Ivory'' (1873) *''Life in the Red Brigade'' (1873) *''Fort Desolation'' (1873) *''The Ocean and its Wonders'' (1874) *'' The Pirate City: An Algerine Tale'' (1874) *''The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' (1874) *''The Story of the Rock'' (1875) *''Rivers of Ice'' (1875) *''Under the Waves'' (1876) *''The Settler and the Savage'' (1877) *''In the Track of the Troops'' (1878) *''Jarwin and Cuffy'' (1878) *''Philosopher Jack'' (1879) *''Six Months at the Cape'' (1879) *''Post Haste'' (1880) *''The Lonely Island'' (1880) *''The Red Man's Revenge'' (1880) *''My Doggie and I'' (1881) *''The Life of a Ship'' (1882) *''The Kitten Pilgrims'' (1882) *''The Giant of the North'' (1882) *''The Madman and the Pirate'' (1883) *''Battles with the Sea'' (1883) *''The Battery and the Boiler'' (1883) *''The Thorogood Family'' (1883) *''The Young Trawler'' (1884) *''Dusty Diamonds, Cut and Polished'' (1884) *''Twice Bought'' (1885) *''The Island Queen'' (1885) *''The Rover of the Andes'' (1885) *''The Prairie Chief'' (1886) *''The Lively Poll'' (1886) *''Red Rooney'' (1886) *''The Big Otter'' (1887) *''The Fugitives or the Tyrant Queen of Madagascar'' (1887) *''Blue Lights'' (1888) *''The Middy and the Moors'' (1888) *'' The Eagle Cliff'' (1889) *''The Crew of the Water Wagtail'' (1889) *''Blown to Bits'' (1889) *''The Garret and the Garden'' (1890) *''Jeff Benson'' (1890) *''Charlie to the Rescue'' (1890) *''The Coxswain's Bride'' (1891) *''The Buffalo Runners'' (1891) *''The Hot Swamp'' (1892) *''Hunted and Harried'' (1892) *''The Walrus Hunters'' (1893) *''An Author's Adventures'' (1893) *''Wrecked but not Ruined'' (1895)

Example of illustrations from a work by Ballantyne

Edgar Giberne (24 June 185021 September 1889) provided five illustrations for ''The Blue Lights or Hot Work in the Soudan: A tale of Soldier life in Several of its Phases'' by Ballantyne (J Nisbet & Co, London, 1888) File:Illustration by Edgar Giberne for The Blue Lights by R M Ballantyne-Page 071.jpg, Page-071 File:Illustration by Edgar Giberne for The Blue Lights by R M Ballantyne-Page 148.jpg, Page-148 File:Illustration by Edgar Giberne for The Blue Lights by R M Ballantyne-Page 217.jpg, Page-217 File:Illustration by Edgar Giberne for The Blue Lights by R M Ballantyne-Page 293.jpg, Page-293 File:Illustration by Edgar Giberne for The Blue Lights by R M Ballantyne-Page 380.jpg, Page-380

References

Bibliography * *

External links

* * * *
R. M. Ballantyne collection
a
One More Library
*
R. M. Ballantyne at Fantastic Fiction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballantyne, Robert Michael 1825 births 1894 deaths Writers from Edinburgh People educated at Edinburgh Academy Canadian fur traders Scottish children's writers Scottish memoirists Scottish travel writers Scottish watercolourists Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters Victorian novelists 19th-century Scottish businesspeople 19th-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists Hudson's Bay Company people 19th-century Scottish male artists