There is an adage: “Behind every great man is a great woman.” That couldn’t be truer than in the relationship between the famous 19th Century Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his beloved wife and muse Fanny Osbourne.
Stevenson was 26 years old in 1876 when he first met Mrs. Osbourne, a married American nearly 11 years his senior, who was living and studying at Grez-sur-Loing, an artists’ colony outside Paris. The intelligent, dark-eyed woman from California captivated Stevenson, who was just beginning to find himself as a novelist, essayist and poet. Osbourne was a short-story writer for stateside magazines, frugally supporting herself and two children Isobel and Floyd. (She had recently moved her family to Grez after the death of her 5-year-old son in Paris.)
Robert was smitten with Fanny and decided to pursue her with youthful ardor. Even though a successful relationship seemed doubtful, the couple became inseparable. Stevenson had studied law at Edinburgh University, but he abandoned that career to travel and write — much to his father’s chagrin.
From Indiana to California
Francis (Fanny) Matilda Van de Grift was born 1840 in Indianapolis, Ind., where her father owned a successful lumber company. Her childhood home was next door to the Second Presbyterian Church where the charismatic preacher Henry Ward Beecher delivered spirited sermons. Rev. Beecher, a social reformer and outspoken abolitionist, also supported women’s rights and temperance. The distinguished minister was a lifelong friend of Fanny’s father.
[Robert Louis] Stevenson’s friends and family disapproved of his reckless infatuation with the older, married American woman with two kids and would not lend him money for a 6,000-mile trip that he probably wouldn’t survive.
On Christmas Eve 1857, Fanny married 20-year-old Samuel Floyd Osbourne, private secretary for the governor of Indiana and a descendant of the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone. Within a year their first child Isobel (Belle) was born. When America’s Civil War broke out in 1861, Samuel joined the Union Army with the rank of captain.
George Marshall, a childhood friend of the Van de Grifts’ had married Fanny’s youngest sister Josephine. During the Civil War, he contracted tuberculosis, so Samuel volunteered to accompany his wife’s brother-in-law out West for his health. Marshall died on the way, but Samuel made it to Nevada Territory where he was struck by gold and silver fever. He bought a mining claim near the Reese River where a silver boom was raging.
In a letter to his wife, he told her to sell their home and come to Nevada without delay. In 1864, Fanny sold the house, sailed out of New York City bound for the Isthmus of Panama and eventually the port of San Francisco. Her husband did not meet her there as expected so, with Belle in tow, she boarded a stagecoach heading for the future Silver State.
The Reese River mining district was bustling with rowdy miners, raucous saloons and sundry retail businesses, but there were few women other than soiled doves plying their wares. Life was hard for Fanny and 14-year-old Belle, so the family moved to Virginia City, Nev., heart of the Comstock Lode. Virginia City had thousands of residents, with a rich and diverse community that rivaled San Francisco in many aspects. Samuel worked at various jobs, including clerk of the Justice Court there, but he also spent a good deal of time in saloons and bordellos.
In 1866 Sam joined the rush to Montana Territory to strike it rich in its ever-expanding gold fields. Abandoned again, Fanny and Belle moved to San Francisco to await his return. Months later she received word that Indians had killed her vagabond husband. Fanny struggled to support herself and daughter until one day Samuel returned alive and well — and he charmed his way back into his wife’s trust. For a while the family lived together peacefully; Fanny gave birth to another child Lloyd. A year or so later a second son was born, Hervey, in their rose-covered cottage in Oakland.
On the surface the couple seemed happily married, but Samuel was a chronic philanderer, and his dalliances were so open and flagrant that Fanny couldn’t bear the infidelity any longer. Furious, she took the three children and sailed for Europe, partly for the advantage of an education in foreign art schools for herself and Belle and partly to distance the family from the distress and pain caused by her cheating husband.
Stevenson meets Fanny
It was during this trial separation from Samuel that Fanny met Robert Louis Stevenson, who was spending two summers at Grez, painting and relaxing with fellow bohemian artists and enjoying himself at cheap pubs and brothels. The mild climate was good for him; Stevenson suffered from chronic lung infections that left him debilitated, weak and gaunt.
Both the alluring Fanny and the bewitching 17-year-old Belle, “with eyes so large as to be out of a drawing,” captivated Stevenson and other young men in the colony. Although Stevenson was closer in age to Belle, he fell in love with Fanny at first sight. Over time her affection grew for the infirm but budding writer who wooed her with enchanting poems and skillful drawings.
Stevenson heads to California
In September 1878, Fanny returned to California to give Samuel one more chance. Stevenson soon lost his inspiration to create and grew despondent. It therefore came as no surprise to anyone in his inner circle that when Fanny cabled the love-struck romantic 11 months later asking him to come to California, he immediately announced plans to go. But Stevenson’s friends and family disapproved of his reckless infatuation with the older, married American woman with two kids and would not lend him money for a 6,000-mile trip that he probably wouldn’t survive.
Despite everyone’s resistance to the scandalous affair Stevenson was determined and by August 1879 he had scrounged enough money to pay for a cheap seat in steerage, the lower cargo deck on a steamer patronized by the poorest immigrants.
At this point in his life Stevenson had little to show professionally. It would be another three years before he wrote the critically acclaimed adventure novel, “Treasure Island” that boosted his career and fame. During the 10-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the heaving seas, bad air and lousy food nearly killed the invalid, but he made it to New York City. Fanny’s message revealed that she was in poor health, had moved from Oakland to Monterey with Belle and Floyd and was in the process of divorcing Samuel. Stevenson responded with his own telegram: “Hold tight. I will be with you in one month.”
There was something special about Fanny Osbourne. An admirer once said that she was the only woman in the world worth dying for and Stevenson was willing to take that chance.
Stay tuned for Part II in the next edition and at TheTahoeWeekly.com.
Excerpt from “Western Train Adventures: Romance, Robberies & Wrecks,” by Mark McLaughlin available at thestormking.com.
