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 The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country's national academy of art. It promotes contemporary art, contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy ...

Early life

Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1825, the ninth of ten children and the youngest son, of 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 The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. David ...

, and Robert's uncle James Ballantyne (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 and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

. 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 fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only ...

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), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. He traded with the local

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

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'' (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 (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. In 1857–58, Ballantyne wrote several nursery tales under the pseudonym 'Comus', including ''Three Little Kittens'' (1857), ''My Mother'' (1857), ''The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' (1857), ''Mister Fox'' (1857), and ''The Robber Kitten'' (1858). They were printed by Thomas Nelson and Sons in illustrated editions with verse versions (in the case of ''The Butterfly's Ball'' by

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children '' The Butterfly's Ball, and th ...

and ''My Mother'' by Ann Taylor) and musical arrangements for piano and for a duet with a child. In 1866 Ballantyne married Jane Grant ( – ), 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 populat ...

, before moving to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

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 in ...

. He died in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

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

Legacy

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

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 ...

(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 a ...

'' (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: ) *'' The Coral Island'' (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 19th-century Scottish painters 19th-century Scottish businesspeople 19th-century Canadian novelists 19th-century Scottish male artists 19th-century Scottish memoirists Writers from Edinburgh People educated at Edinburgh Academy Canadian fur traders Scottish children's writers Scottish travel writers Scottish watercolourists Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome Scottish male painters Victorian novelists Canadian male novelists Hudson's Bay Company people Scottish expatriates in Italy People with Ménière's disease