Scottish writer for boys, noted for the adventure story THE CORAL ISLAND (1858), which Robert Louis Stevenson acknowledged as the formative influence of his own love of the South Seas. The book has not been out of print since it first appeared. Several abridged editions have been published for young readers. Ballantyne's narrative skill, colourful settings, and resourcefulness of his heroes have secured his popularity throughout generations.

"For many months after this we continued to live on our island in uninterrupted harmony and happiness. Sometimes we went out afishing in the lagoon, and sometimes went ahunting in the woods, or ascended to the mountain-top, by way of variety, although Peterkin always asserted that we went for the purpose of hailing any ship that might chance to heave in sight. But I am certain that none of us wished to be delivered from our captivity, for we were extremely happy, and Peterkin used to say that as we were very young we should not feel the loss of a year or two."
(from The Coral Island, abridged edition)

R.M. Ballantyne, the son of a newspaper editor and nephew of the Ballantyne brothers (see below), was born in Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy (1835-37) and privately. Bad financial investments caused the family's ruin and Ballantyne's life changed thoroughly. Between the ages of 16 and 22 he was employed in Canada by the Hudson Bay Company, trading with local Indians in remote areas. In 1847 he returned to Scotland. He was a clerk at the North British Railway Company in Edinburgh for two years, and worked then for the paper-makers Alexander Cowan and Company. From 1849 to 1855 he was junior partner of Thomas Constable and Company, a printing house.

In 1848 appeared Ballantyne's HUDSON'S BAY, OR, THE LIFE IN THE WILDS OF NORTH AMERICA. The autobiographical work depicted his youth and adventures in Canada. From 1856 he devoted himself entirely to free-lance writing and giving lectures. Ballantyne's first stories depicted the life in Canada, later works dealt with adventures in Britain, Africa, and elsewhere. After 1883 Balantyne lived in Harrow, Middlesex.

Among his other early works are SNOWFLAKES AND SUNBEAMS; OR, THE YOUNG FUR TRADER (1856), UNGAVA: A TALE OF ESKIMO LAND (1857), THE DOG CRUSOE (1860). Several of his books were based on personal experience.

The Coral Island tells a story of three English boys, Ralph Rover, the 15 years old narrator, three years older Jack, and humorous 14 year old, Peterkin, who are shipwrecked on a deserted island. In the true Robinson Crusoe fashion they create an idyllic society despite typhoons, wild hogs, and hostile visitors. The boys make a fire by rubbing two sticks together and climb palm trees to gather thin-skinned coconuts - a mistake in detail Ballantyne was bitterly to regret. To sail to other islands they build a boat and make a sail out of the coconut cloth. After a fight Jack wins the native chief, Taroro. Then evil pirates kidnap Ralp whose adventures continue among the South Sea Islands. He manages to escape with one of the members of the crew, Bloody Bill, and with the pirates' schooner. Bill dies and Ralph returns to his friends. When they try to help Avatea, a Samoan girl, to go to Christian natives, Tararo seizes them. However, an English missionary appears on the scene and Tararo becomes a Christian. Finally the three heroes return to civilization, matured and much wiser. "To part is the lot of all mankind. The world is a scene of constant leave-making, and the hands that grasp in cordial greeting today, are doomed ere long to unite for the last time, when the quivering lips pronounce the word - 'Farewell'."

Annoyed by a mistake he made in The Coral Island, Ballantyne travelled widely to gain first-hand knowledge and to research the backgrounds of his stories. He spent three weeks on Bell Rock to write THE LIGHTHOUSE (1865), and was for a short time a London fireman (FIGHTING THE FLAMES, 1867), for DEEP DOWN (1868) he lived with the tin miners of St. Just for over three months. Experiences as a fireman on board the tender of the London-to Edinburgh express and weeks on the Gull Lightship also gave material for his subsequent novels. Ballantyne was especially careful with the details of local flora and fauna, giving his dramatic adventures, capture and escape, shipwrecks and other colourful events and believable settings.

During his career Ballantyne wrote over 80 books. In 1866 he married Jane Dickson Grant; they had four sons and two daughters. Ballantyne died in Rome, Italy, on February 8, 1894.

Ballantyne opened views into the world that just waited for brave explorers, for the sons of the rapidly expanding literati of middle- and working-class families. He became the hero of Victorian youth. Ballantyne's straitjacketed Puritanism did not arouse any questions, and the light hearted descriptions of the slaughter of fauna and natives of the islands were then passed without comment. With his books Ballantyne made his contribution to the success of missionaries, soldiers, sailors, trail-blazers, the exploiters of the great British Empire.

James Ballantyne (1772-1833), brother of John Ballantyne, at first a solicitor, then a printer in Kelso and later in Edinburgh. Although his printing business with his brother and Walter Scott was highly successful, he was bankrupted by the crash of Constable and Co. in 1826. Scott named him Aldiborontiphoscophoria after a character in H. Carey's burlesque Chrononhotonthologos. - John Ballantyne (1774-1821), brother of James Ballantyne, became in 1809 manager of the publishing firm started by himself and Sir Walter Scott, who named him 'Rigdum-Funnidos' after a character in Henry Carey's (1687?-1743) burlesque Chrononhotonthologos.

For further reading: The young fur trader; the story of R. M. Ballantyne by L. C. Rodd.(1966); Ballantyne the Brave by Eric Quayle (1967); R.M. Ballantyne: a bibliography of first editions by Eric Quayle (1968); The Robinsonade Tradition in Robert Michael Ballantyne's the Choral Island and William Golding's the Lord of the Flies by Karin Siegl (1996); St James Guide to Children's Writers, ed. by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast (1999) - See also: William Golding's Lord of the Flies

• HUDSON'S BAY, OR, LIFE IN THE WILDS OF NORTH AMERICA, 1848
• SNOWFLAKES AND SUNBEAMS; OR, THE YOUNG FUR TRADER, 1856
• THREE LITTLE KITTENS, 1856 (as Comus)
• MISTER FOX, 1857 (as Comus)
• MY MOTHER (CHIT-CHAT), 1857 (as Comus)
• THE LIFE OF A SHIP FROM THE LAUNCH TO THE WRECK, 1857
• UNGAVA: A TALE OF ESKIMO LAND, 1857
• THE CORAL ISLAND, 1857
• UNGAVA, 1858
• THE ROBBER KITTEN, 1858 (as Comus)
• MARTIN RATTLER, 1858
• MEE-A-OW!, 1859
• THE WORLD OF ICE, 1860
• THE DOG CRUSOE, 1860 - see Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
• THE GOLDEN DREAM, 1861
• THE GORILLA HUNTERS, A TALE OF THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 1861
• THE RED ERIC, 1861
• THE WILD MAN OF THE WEST, 1863
• FIGHTING THE WHALES, 1863
• AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS, 1863
• FAST IN THE ICE, 1863
• GASCOYNE, 1864
• THE LIFEBOAT, 1864
• CHASING THE SUN, 1864
• FREAKS ON THE FELLS, 1864
• THE LIGHTHOUSE, 1865
• SHIFTING WINDS, 1866
• FIGHTING THE FLAMES, 1867
• SILVER LAKE, 1867
• DEEP DOWN, 1868
• ERLING THE BOLD, 1869
• SUNK AT SE, 1869
• LOST IN THE FOREST, 1869
• OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, 1869
• SAVED BY THE LIFEBOAT, 1869
• THE CANNIBAL ISLAND, 1869
• HUNTING THE LIONS, 1869
• DIGGING FOR GOLD, 1869
• UP IN THE CLOUDS, 1869
• THE BATTLE AND THE BREEZE, 1869
• THE FLOATING LIGHT OF THE GOODWIN SANDS, 1870
• THE IRON HORSE, 1871
• THE PIONEERS, 1872
• THE NORSEMEN IN THE WEST, 1872
• LIFE IN THE RED BRIGADE, 1873
• BLACK IVORY, 1873
• THE PIRATE CITY, 1874
• RIVERS OF ICE, 1875
• THE STORY OF THE ROCK, 1875
• UNDER THE WAVES, 1876
• THE SETTLER AND THE SAVAGE, 1877
• IN THE TRACK OF THE TROOPS, 1878
• JARWIN AND CUFFY, 1878
• PHILOSOPHER JACK, 1880
• THE LONELY ISLAND, 1880
• POST HASTE, 1880
• THE RED MAN'S REVENGE, 1880
• MY DOGGIE AND I, 1881
• THE GIANT OF THE NORTH, 1882
• THE KITTEN PILGRIMS, 1882
• THE BATTERY AND THE BOILER, 883
• BATTKLES WITH THE SEA, 1883
• THE THOROGOOD FAMILY, 1883
• MADMAN AND THE PIRATE, 1883
• DUSTU DIAMINDS ARECUT AND POLISHED, 1884
• THE YOUNG TRAVELER, 1884
• TWICE BOUGHT, 1885
• THE ROVER OF THE ANDES, 1885
• THE ISLAND QUEEN, 1885 · RED ROONEY, 1886
• THE PRAIRIE CHIEF, 1886
• THELIVELY POLL, 1886
• THE BIG OTTER, 1887
• THE FUGITIVES, 1887
• BLUE LIGHTS, 1888
• THE MIDDY AND THE MOORS (SLAVE OF THE MOORS), 1888
• THE CREW OF THE WATER WAGTAIL, 1889
• THE EAGLE CLIFF, 1889
• BLOWN TO BITS, 1889
• THE GARRET AND THE GARDEN, 1890
• CHARLIE TO THE RESCUE, 1890
• THE BUFFALO RUNNERS, 1891
• THE COXSWAIN'S BRIDE, 1891
• THE HOT SWAMP, 1892
• HUNTED AND HARRIED, 1892
• THE WALRUS HUNTERS, 1893
• PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF BOOK-MAKING, 1893
• REUBEN'S LUCK, 1896