Stevenson's first novel was begun as an entertainment for his twelve-year-old stepson. Its initial publication was as a serial in Young Folks' Magazine; its original title, The Sea-Cook; or, Treasure Island, was shortened to Treasure Island for its publication in book form in 1882. The novel became a bestseller, bringing Stevenson fame and, increasingly, financial security. A book of poems for young people, A Child's Garden of Verses, was published in 1885, two more novels, Kidnapped and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in 1886, and The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses in 1888.
The family returned to the United States for several months in the late 1880s and then, from California, leased a yacht and began several more months of travel among the islands of the South Pacific. After a sojourn in Honolulu, they went on to Samoa, where they purchased and renovated a house. The islands and their people were very appealing to both Stevenson and Fanny, and they made many friends. Stevenson was dismayed at the European and American exploitation of the area and wrote two non-fiction books on this and related subjects, A Footnote to History (1892) and In the South Seas (1896). He also finished another adventure novel (The Master of Ballantrae, 1889) and wrote two more, The Beach of Falesá (1892) and The Weir of Hermiston (1896). The second of these, unfinished at his death, is considered by many to be Stevenson's masterpiece.
