SLOWLY but surely Scotland's greatest novelist Robert Louis Stevenson is acquiring the place he is owed alongside the other literary giants of these island. Like Shakespeare, Burns, Joyce and Dylan Thomas - Stevenson, the man who helped forge some of the modern world's most enduring myths has a day named after him...in fact he has a whole week and it begins tomorrow.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s cultural legacy will be the focus of this year’s week-long celebration of the writer.

Robert Louis Stevenson Day itself will take place on Friday November 13 - a suitable date for a man of such dark genius - though there will be celebrations all week across the country from Nov 9 to 15.

Led by Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, this year’s Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) Day will see 38 public events held at 23 venues across Edinburgh for devotees of his work, including the timeless Treasure Island, Kidnapped and of course the mythic The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

The celebration is becoming has big as Bloomsday in Dublin which venerates James Joyce's towering novel Ulysses in an explosion of drink, story-telling, food and foul language.

Among those taking part in the RLS events are actor Nigel Planer, author Louise Welsh and composer Howard Blake.

One of the co-founders of the event, Professor Linda Dryden, who is director of Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Literature and Writing (CLAW) said: “In 2009 Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust in collaboration with CLAW launched the first ever Robert Louis Stevenson Day (RLS Day).

“Our aim was to celebrate Stevenson in the city of his birth and to bring this most famous writer to greater prominence, to recognise his debt to Edinburgh, and the city’s debt to him.

“We began with a limited agenda: chalking the streets with Stevenson quotations, pop-up theatre with acting students, a few events around the city.

“This year we have so many events happening that the day has become a week-long festival. Local schools, museums, libraries, community groups and individual citizens are getting involved in activities ranging from RLS tea parties, special themed events at the Stevenson House on Heriot Row, day-long readings from RLS at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, special RLS-themed city tours and much more.”

This year’s theme is ‘Stevenson on Stage and Screen’ and many of the most famous film adaptations still have resonance today.

The 1941 version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman remains a powerful and frightening version of the story. The most recent reimagining by Charlie Higson for an ITV series sparked complaints about the level of violence.

Treasure Island has been adapted countless times - most famously with Robert Newton as Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney production - as has his classic adventure Kidnapped. Characters created by Stevenson have been portrayed by some of the greatest stars who ever lived including Erroll Flynn and Boris Karloff.

Ali Bowden, Director of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, said: “Stevenson’s work has inspired over a hundred adaptations in cinema, and so many on stage, radio and TV.

“RLS Day patron Nigel Planer, himself an actor and playwright, notes that ‘Actors have leapt at the chance to play Stevenson’s eminently actable characters, from Robert Newton, Bernard Miles and most recently Arthur Darvill as Long John Silver to Matthew Rhys in last year’s ‘Beach at Falesa’ on Radio 4.

“There are over 190 entries listed in the British Film Institute’s catalogue under ‘Robert Louis Stevenson’. Radio and TV versions are also plentiful and each year new adaptations are added to these long lists. There is no sign that the works by Stevenson are becoming less popular.

“That’s why this year’s RLS Day theme is Stevenson on Stage and Screen. We have 23 free events in the programme, a new schools programme and our Hidden RLS strand of events where we open the door on the lesser known aspects of RLS’s life.”

One of the flagship events will see Nigel Planer discuss a new work created by composer Howard Blake.

Professor Dryden said: “This year we have a very special panel evening thanks to the generosity of the Faculty of Advocates.

“Nigel Planer will be joined by Charlie Fletcher, author and scriptwriter, and by Howard Blake, the feted composer of the music for that perennial Christmas favourite, The Snowman.

“Howard has just put the finishing touches to a long-cherished project, an animated film of a song cycle directly inspired by Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses, with the songs being sung by the choir of Edinburgh’s own Mary Erskine School.

“Thanks to Howard’s incredible generosity and enthusiasm for RLS, this film will be given an exclusive showing prior to a discussion with Nigel, Howard and Charlie about how Stevenson has been adapted for Howard’s film and much more.

“No doubt there will be much discussion of Jekyll and Hyde, Kidnapped and Treasure Island and all of the spin off media productions, including Charlie Higson’s current TV production of Jekyll and Hyde.”

For a man who lost his life so tragically young - just 44 when he succumbed to a cerebral haemorrhage on the Pacific island of Samoa - it seems sure now that his legacy will never die.