see Herb Roth's, Piratical Barbarity 1930 Peter Pauper Press

The book originally appeared in parts in Young Folks, 1882-3, and was published in book form in 1883.

Stevenson himself wrote that the map “was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully coloured; the shape of it took my fancy beyond expression; it contained harbours that pleased me like sonnets; and with the unconsciousness of the predestined, I ticketed my performance ‘Treasure Island.’”

Another variant of the beginning. "... busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words "Treasure Island" at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too — the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island ... . "Oh, for a story about it", I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment ... " Lloyd Osbourne, the author's stepson quoted in Letley's edition of Treasure Island, Oxford 1998