R.M. Ballantyne

ROBERT MICHAEL BALLANTYNE (1825-1894) was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction. Her wrote more than 100 books but is chiefly famous for his adventure story, The Coral Island. He was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1825, to Alexander Thomson Ballantyne and Anne. His father was a newspaper editor and printer in the family firm of Ballantyne & Co.

A banking crisis in UK in 1825 resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business. Ballantyne went to Canada at the age of 16, and spent five years working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. His longing for family and home during that period urged him to start writing letters to his mother. This long letter writing sharpened his writing skills. In 1847 he returned to Scotland where he published his first book 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 and focused on his literary career. He began the series of adventure stories for the young and earned name and fame in this field.

Some of the popular adventure stories written by him include The Young Fur-Traders (1856), The Coral Island (1857), The World of Ice (1859), Ungava: A Tale of Eskimo Land (1857), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Lighthouse (1865), The Pirate City (1874), Erling the Bold (1869), among others.

Ballantyne’s stories were written from personal experience. For instance, Snowflakes and Sunbeams; Or, The Young Fur Traders (1856) is a boys’ adventure story based on Ballantyne’s experiences at the Hudson’s Bay Company. The heroes of his books exhibit remarkable self-reliance and moral uprightness.

Ballantyne has left a rich legacy and greatly influenced subsequent writers, notably Robert Louis Stevenson.