The real life adventures of author Robert Louis Stevenson rival those of his famous fictional characters. Born into a strictly religious, middle-class Edinburgh family, he later rebelled and refused to follow his father into the lighthouse construction business, opting instead for a literary career and marriage to Fanny, the love of his life and a crack-shot American divorcee. His travels took him to France, America and the South Pacific. Stevenson was an atheist and free spirit - in Samoa, where he died - and he fought in a civil war for independence. In 1886, the blockbuster novel Kidnapped was published - a dramatic adventure of abduction and life on the run in the wilds of Scotland. Stevenson died in 1894, just 44 years old. The Samoan natives, who were devoted to Stevenson, cut a track through the jungle to create a resting place for him on top of the mountain above his beloved Vailima estate.
American illustrator and writer LOU CAMERON attended the California School of Fine Arts. He was active as a comic book artist in the 1950s. He was a versatile artist for Gilberton's 'Classics Illustrated' series. drawing comic adaptations of novels by Herbert George Wells, Ann S. Stephans, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and Robert Louis Stevenson.
He was furthermore a contributor to the mystery titles published by Atlas, including Astonishing Comics, Journey into Mystery, Uncanny Tales and Journey Into Unknown Worlds. He illustrated stories in the same genre for DC titles like House of Mystery, House of Secrets and Tales of the Unexpected, as well as Ace Periodicals' Baffling Mysteries, Web of Mystery and Hand of Fate. He additionally did horror stories for St. John Publishing and romance and western features for Story Comics. In 1951 and 1952 he did a syndicated feature called 'So It Sesms'.
During the same period, Cameron was active as a pulp book illustrator. From 1957 he focused on his work has a writer, which he has done under his own name but also as Julie Cameron, Dagmar, Mary Manning and Ramsay Thorne. Among his many (mainly suspense, war and western) novels are 'Beyond the Scarlet Door', 'The Amphorae Pirates', 'Belle of Fort Smith' and 'The Dirty War of Sgt. Slade', as well as the 'Stringer' western series.
