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R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
1825–1894
A Scottish adventure writer whose stories of survival, exploration, and moral courage thrilled generations of young readers. Best known for The Coral Island, he drew on real experience and a gift for vivid storytelling to bring distant worlds to life.
100 Audiobooks
The Golden Dream
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Coral Island
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Dog Crusoe and His Master
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Digging for Gold: Adventures in California
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventure in the South Seas
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Dog Crusoe and his Master
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Hunting the Lions
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Hudson Bay
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Island Queen
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Golden Dream: Adventures in the Far West
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Lost in the Forest: Wandering Will's Adventures in South America
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne, William Roscoe
Under the Waves: Diving in Deep Waters
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
My Doggie and I
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Black Ivory
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Gorilla Hunters
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Garret and the Garden; Or, Low Life High Up
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Ocean and Its Wonders
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Personal Reminiscences in Book Making, and Some Short Stories
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Lighthouse
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Martin Rattler
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Lighthouse
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Man on the Ocean: A Book about Boats and Ships
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Charlie to the Rescue
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Pirate City: An Algerine Tale
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Twice Bought
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Away in the Wilderness
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Iron Horse
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Hunted and Harried
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Erling the Bold
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Blue Lights: Hot Work in the Soudan
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Six Months at the Cape
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Story of the Rock
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Lifeboat
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Settler and the Savage
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The World of Ice
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Fighting the Flames
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished: A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Ungava
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Life in the Red Brigade: London Fire Brigade
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Chasing the Sun
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Wild Man of the West: A Tale of the Rocky Mountains
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Freaks on the Fells: Three Months' Rustication
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Fast in the Ice: Adventures in the Polar Regions
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Middy and the Moors: An Algerine Story
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Young Fur Traders
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Red Eric
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Norsemen in the West
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
In the Track of the Troops
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Prairie Chief
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Fugitives: The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Madman and the Pirate
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Shifting Winds: A Tough Yarn
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Eagle Cliff
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Post Haste
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Blown to Bits: The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Battles with the Sea
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Silver Lake
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Pioneers
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Life of a Ship
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Walrus Hunters: A Romance of the Realms of Ice
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Red Man's Revenge: A Tale of The Red River Flood
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Buffalo Runners: A Tale of the Red River Plains
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Jarwin and Cuffy
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Handbook to the new Gold-fields
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Blown to Bits; or, The Lonely Man of Rakata
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Fighting the Whales
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Over the Rocky Mountains: Wandering Will in the Land of the Redskin
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Hot Swamp
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Battery and the Boiler: Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Big Otter
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Saved by the Lifeboat
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Coxswain's Bride; also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Rover of the Andes: A Tale of Adventure on South America
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Rivers of Ice
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Gascoyne, The Sandal-Wood Trader: A Tale of the Pacific
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Red Rooney: The Last of the Crew
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The World of Ice
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Wrecked but not Ruined
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Fort Desolation: Red Indians and Fur Traders of Rupert's Land
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Fighting the Whales
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Young Trawler
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Philosopher Jack
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Thorogood Family
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Battle and the Breeze
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Jeff Benson, or the Young Coastguardsman
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Crew of the Water Wagtail
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Up in the Clouds: Balloon Voyages
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Lively Poll: A Tale of the North Sea
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Snowflakes and Sunbeams; Or, The Young Fur-traders: A Tale of the Far North
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Martin Rattler
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Sunk at Sea
by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
About the author
Born in Edinburgh in 1825, R. M. Ballantyne became one of the best-known writers of Victorian adventure fiction. As a young man he spent several years in Canada connected with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and that firsthand experience of wilderness travel and frontier life later helped give his fiction its sense of detail and movement.
He went on to write a large number of books for young readers, often set at sea or in faraway places and centered on bravery, friendship, and endurance. His most famous novel, The Coral Island (1858), became a classic of boys’ adventure literature and helped secure his lasting reputation.
Ballantyne continued writing for decades and published widely popular tales including The Dog Crusoe and Ungava. He died in 1894, but his work remains an important part of nineteenth-century children’s literature and the long tradition of high-spirited adventure stories.