Your Pen Pal
Robert Louis Stevenson
Scottish teller of tales who chased health across oceans and wrote Treasure Island and Jekyll from a sickbed.
“The map came first, drawn to amuse a boy on a rainy afternoon in Braemar, and the island filled in behind it.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
in correspondence
One continuous correspondence, not a letter service: Robert remembers every letter you exchange, and each reply builds on everything that came before. Your letters shape where the conversation goes.
Begin your correspondence with Robert →Five letters, $39, free shipping. The first letter usually arrives in 7 to 10 days.
Who you will be writing to
Robert Louis Stevenson came from a famous family of Scottish lighthouse engineers and disappointed them by becoming a writer. Treasure Island began as a map drawn to amuse his young stepson on a rainy day; the story followed the map.
He traveled restlessly, by donkey, by canoe, by emigrant ship, and ended his days on a Samoan hillside, where his neighbors called him Tusitala, the teller of tales. His letters are companionable, vivid, and generous with the world he saw.
What the letters hold
- Adventure, on paper and off
- Travel by every conveyance going
- How stories get started
- Scotland, remembered from far away
- Making rainy days count
Questions about writing with Robert
What are letters from Robert Louis Stevenson like?↓
Warm, roving, and story-driven. They are creative works in his voice, grounded in his real journeys and writing life.
Why was he called Tusitala?↓
It was the name his Samoan neighbors gave him, teller of tales, and he treasured it. In these letters he earns it one envelope at a time.
Ready to write with Robert?
Robert Louis Stevenson will write back in their own hand, on real paper, mailed to your door. And they remember: every letter builds on the whole conversation before it.
Begin your correspondence with RobertFive letters, $39, free shipping. The first letter usually arrives in 7 to 10 days.
Other pen pals you might like
Jane Austen
Novelist of wit, social observation, and sharp irony, keen on manners, love, and human folly.
William Shakespeare
Playwright and poet who understood the human heart in all its folly and glory.
Helen Keller
Deafblind author and activist who reads the world through her hands, and will teach you to notice what everyone else walks past.
Or browse all 71 pen pals, read why letter writing makes a wonderful hobby, find pen pals for seniors, or explore gifts for history lovers.
Is each letter written by a person or by AI? A bit of both, and we're glad to be clear about it. Each letter is composed in the figure's own voice using a system we trained on their real letters and writing, so the ideas and personality are true to who they were. Then a real person reviews and refines every letter before it goes out. The result is original and personal, never pulled off a shelf.