1980 Western Samoa One Tala- Tanumafili II Robert Louis Stevenson. Commemorative coin KM-8. For 75th Anniversary of the Death of Robert Louis Stevenson. Tusitala, "Story teller" or "Story writer", was the samoan name that was given to Stevenson by the local chiefs he was friend with and who gave him royal funerals when he died. In the 44 years of his life, author Robert Louis Stevenson produced an incredible amount of works encompassing short stories, novels, essays and non-fiction. His love of travel led him to eventually settle in Samoa, where the author in 1882, Stevenson wrote a work of historical non-fiction, A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. In it, he describes the Samoan Civil War and criticises the American, German and British colonial powers' battle for control of Samoa and its detrimental effect on the Samoan community.