R. M. Ballantyne facts for kids

Quick facts for kids R. M. Ballantyne
R. M. Ballantyne, c. 1890
Born	(1825-04-24)24 April 1825 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	8 February 1894(1894-02-08) (aged 68) Rome, Italy
Pen name	Comus
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Scottish
Period	19th century
Genre	Juvenile fiction

Robert Michael Ballantyne (born April 24, 1825 – died February 8, 1894) was a Scottish writer. He wrote over 100 adventure books for young people. Ballantyne was also a talented artist. He showed some of his water-colour paintings at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Early Life and Adventures

Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on April 24, 1825. He was one of ten children. His father was a newspaper editor and printer. His uncle, James Ballantyne, was the printer for the famous Scottish author Sir Walter Scott.

When he was 16, Ballantyne moved to Canada. He worked for the Hudson's Bay Company for five years. This company traded furs with the local Native American people. His job meant he traveled a lot by canoe and sleigh. He explored areas that are now the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. These adventures later inspired his book Snowflakes and Sunbeams (1856).

During his time in Canada, he missed his family. He started writing long letters to his mother. Ballantyne later said that writing these letters helped him become a better writer.

Becoming a Writer

In 1847, Ballantyne returned to Scotland. He found out his father had passed away. The next year, he published his first book, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America. For a while, he worked for a publishing company.

In 1856, he decided to become a full-time writer. He began writing adventure stories for young readers. These books made him very famous.

Popular Adventure Books

Ballantyne wrote many popular adventure books. Some of his well-known titles 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)
• Fighting the Whales (1866)
• Deep Down (1868)
• The Pirate City (1874)
• Erling the Bold (1869)
• The Settler and the Savage (1877)

He wrote over 100 books in total. Ballantyne tried to write about places he knew personally. For example, The Gorilla Hunters (1861) features characters from The Coral Island. For this book, he used facts from Paul du Chaillu's book about exploring Equatorial Guinea.

The Coral Island is still his most famous book today. However, he made a small mistake in it about the thickness of coconut shells. After that, he made sure to get first-hand experience for his stories. For The Lighthouse, he lived with lighthouse keepers at the Bell Rock Lighthouse. For Deep Down, he spent time with tin miners in Cornwall.

In 1866, Ballantyne married Jane Grant. They had three sons and three daughters.

Later Years and Legacy

Ballantyne lived in Harrow, London for many years. Later, he moved to Italy because of his health. He passed away in Rome on February 8, 1894. He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.

A special plaque in Harrow, London, remembers Ballantyne.

Influence on Other Writers

One young writer who loved Ballantyne's books was Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94). Stevenson was very impressed by The Coral Island. He used some ideas from it in his own famous book, Treasure Island (1881).

Stevenson even honored Ballantyne in the introduction to Treasure Island with a poem:

To the Hesitating Purchaser

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:

So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

Works by R. M. Ballantyne

Illustrations from Ballantyne's Work

Edgar Giberne (1850–1889) created five illustrations for Ballantyne's book The Blue Lights or Hot Work in the Soudan: A tale of Soldier life in Several of its Phases (1888).

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See also

In Spanish: Robert Michael Ballantyne para niños