Scottish Authors > R M Ballantyne Novelist 1825-1894

Robert Michael Ballantyne was born at 25 Ann Street, Edinburgh on 24th April 1825, the son of Alexander Thomson Ballantyne. His uncles James and John Ballantyne were involved with Archibald Constable in the publishing of Sir Walter Scott's novels and the family was ruined financially by the crash of the business in 1826.

Following his education at the Edinburgh Academy Ballantyne entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and between 1841 and 1847 worked with them as a clerk at the Red River Settlement in Canada. The experience was to provide him with the background for his first adventure tale for young people, The Young fur traders which followed the adventures of a young man called Charles Kennedy. Published in 1856, it was a loosely autobiographical account of Ballantyne's own time with the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada and its success prompted a series of adventure stories set at sea or in the American west and the jungles of Africa. Between then and his death in 1894 Ballantyne published some eighty novels which echoed the Victorian enthusiasm for the ideals of service to the British empire. The best known of these is Coral Island (1858) which tells the gripping story of three young castaways on a Pacific island - the narrator Ralph and his friends Jack Martin and Peterkin Gayy. Like Robinson Crusoe they have to make do with bare essentials and endure many adventures, including a fight with cannibals, before they are rescued. Also worthy of note are Martin Rattler (1859), The Dog Crusoe (1861), The Gorilla hunters (1862) and Black ivory (1873).

Together with contemporaries such as GA Henty, Michael Fenn and WHG Kingston, Ballantyne became a regular contributor to the Boy's Own Paper which produced patriotic adventure stories set in the remote parts of the empire. Through his prodigious output Ballantyne quickly became one of the best known and best paid adventure writers of his day. Freed from the need to earn a living - in 1848 he had returned to Edinburgh to support his mother and five sisters by working as clerk with the North British Railway Company - Ballantyne was able to travel widely to research the backgrounds for his novels. His latter years were spent in France and England and he died in Rome on 8th February 1894. During his time in Edinburgh Ballantyne lived at 6 Millerfield Place near the Meadows and was a regular attender at the nearby Chalmers Memorial Church.

During his lifetime he enjoyed widespread popularity for his ability to produce credible adventures in vividly realised settings. Much influenced by Scott, Ballantyne was able to create heroes who are romantic and chivalric ideals of manhood and their adventures are pictured as glorious and fulfilling deeds of derring-do. However, as interest in the empire began to wane after the First World War so too did Ballantyne's novels lose their appeal and in time they became little more than literary curiosities.

Trevor Royle

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