CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS
Author - R.M. Ballantyne. These books are not listed for sale.
|
HOME PAGE |
R. M. Ballantyne (1825-1894)
was a Scottish juvenile fiction writer. Born Robert Michael Ballantyne
in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers.
In 1848 he published his first book, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds
of North America. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable,
the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business for the profession of literature,
and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his
name is popularly associated. The Young Fur-Traders (1856), The
Coral Island (1857), The World of Ice (1859), Ungava: A Tale
of Eskimo Land (1857), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Lighthouse
(1865), Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines (1868), The Pirate
City (1874), Erling the Bold (1869), The Settler and the
Savage (1877), and many other books, to the number of upwards of a
hundred, followed in regular succession, his rule being in every case to
write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described.
Ballantyne, the son of a newspaper editor and nephew of the Ballantyne brothers 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 where he was employed as 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 first novel, Hudson's Bay, or, The Life in thge 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; several of his books were based on personal experience. Annoyed by a mistake he made in The Coral Island, (where he described 'thin-skinned coconuts) 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); for a short time a London fireman (Fighting the Flames, 1867); for Deep Down (1868) he lived with the tinminers 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 believable settings for his dramatic adventures, shipwrecks and other colorful events. 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 rouse any questions, and the lighthearted 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. Of his over-eighty book, the only one of real direct interest related to diving was Under the Waves - Diving in Deep Waters, although several others, as listed below, may be of interest as they relate to the sea. The Coral Island may be interesting to surfers as it has an excellent painting pf native surfers - and considering the book was first published in 1858, this must be one of the earliest mentions of board surfing. (The painting is 1913). He was also an accomplished
artist, and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy.
|
This CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS site is sponsored by:
![]() |
Publishers and Distributors 303 Commercial Road, Yarram, Vic 3971, Australia Phone (03) 5182 5108 International 61 3 5182 5108 Email: peter@oceans.com.au |
For
OCEANS ENTERPRISES homepage, link on graphic. |
![]() |