Portrait of Ballantyne by his brother, the artist John Ballantyne, c.1855. [Click on the image for more information.]
Not only was Ballantyne one of the romantic figures of literature in the later Victorian era; he was also a pioneer of the straightforward adventure story set in a factual background. He was one of the first to let the youthful characters of his books fend for themselves in the plots he created, without the curbing hands and interfering restrictions of dreary chaperones, or the sententious comments of pious uncles and straitlaced moralising aunts with which earlier authors invariably stuffed their tales. Time has withered his popularity, but a number of his titles are still in print today, well over a hundred years since they first appeared. Stories he wrote with a quill pen back in the 1850’s are now being read by the fifth generation of young men to hold a book of his in the glow of a bedside lamp — as their candle and gas-lit predecessors did before them. — Eric Quayle, preface
Bibliography
Ballantyne, R.M. An Author's Adventures, or, Personal Reminiscences in Book-Making. London: James Nesbit & Co., 1897. Internet Archive, from a University of Alberta microfilm. Web. 10 September 2025.
Bassett, Troy J. "Author: R. M. Ballantyne." At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837—1901, 2 July 2025. http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2868. Web. 10 September 2025.
Carpenter, Humphrey, and Mari Prichard. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. 1984. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Corrected ed. 1985.
Quayle, Eric. Ballantyne the Brave: A Victorian Writer and His Family. Chester Springs, Pennsylvania: Dufour Editions, 1967.
Sutherland, John. The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. London: Longman, 1988.
Created 8 September 2025