Treasure Island, originally titled The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys, is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story revolves around pirates, buccaneers, and buried gold. The novel highlights a coming-of-age journey, noted for its rich atmosphere, vivid characters, and captivating action. Initially serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 under the pseudonym Captain George North, it was first published as a book on November 14, 1883, by Cassell & Co. It remains one of the most frequently dramatized and adapted novels, influencing many popular cultural depictions of pirates, including the iconic imagery of treasure maps marked with an "X", desert islands, and quintessential pirate characters such as one-legged seamen with parrots.