Stevenson, Fanny (1840–1914)

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Stevenson, Fanny (1840–1914)

Wife and caretaker of Robert Louis Stevenson who defied convention to marry him and is credited with a strong influence on his work. Name variations: Frances Vandegrift or Frances Van de Grift; Frances or Fanny Osbourne. Born Frances Vandegrift in 1840 in Indianapolis, Indiana; died of a stroke in February 1914 in Santa Barbara, California; daughter of Jacob Vandegrift or Van de Grift (a farmer and lumber merchant); mother's name unknown; educated in public schools in Indiana and the Grez School of Art in France; married Samuel Osbourne, in 1857 (divorced); married Robert Louis Stevenson (the writer), in 1880 (died 1894); children: (first marriage) Belle, Samuel Lloyd, Hervey.

Born in Indiana in 1840, Frances Vandegrift was the eldest of six children of Jacob Vandegrift, a prosperous farmer and lumber merchant. Fanny was not a typical young Victorian woman. Dark, with curly hair and a propensity for dressing in bold and dramatic colors, she had many admirers until, at age 16, she married Samuel Osbourne, a native of Kentucky who was working as secretary to the governor of Indiana.

After two years of fighting for the Union in the Civil War, Sam left as a captain and went to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California to try his luck at silver mining. In 1864, Fanny liquidated the family assets and, with her young daughter Belle Osbourne , journeyed first to New York and then down the Atlantic coast to Panama, crossing the Isthmus and then sailing up the coast to San Francisco. Sam's fortunes were not as good as he had implied in his letters; the mines of the Comstock Lode had been exhausted and they lived in rough mining camps. At one point, it was believed Sam had been killed in an Indian attack. Fanny moved to San Francisco and supported herself as a seamstress. Their finances improved when Sam returned and became a court stenographer, and they joined the circle of intellectuals and adventurers in San Francisco.

Fanny had two more children, Samuel Lloyd and Hervey. She began to take art lessons in Oakland with Virgil Williams, who later established the San Francisco School of Design. Here, she met other artists and writers and transformed herself. She was becoming disillusioned with her marriage, as Sam not only kept mistresses on the side, he was also a chronic adventurer, unable to settle down in one place, and the family was always short of money. Fanny felt it necessary to support herself and her children. Money problems were constant throughout her life.

In 1875, accompanied by her three children, Fanny went to Paris to study art. Despite monetary

support from her husband, it was a troublesome time for the family. However, in her letters home she did not complain, and in the voluminous correspondence in which she chronicled her life, she usually glossed over whatever difficulties she was encountering, concentrating instead on positive goals and events. When, in the winter of 1876, her youngest son Hervey died after a long illness, she was broken physically and mentally. Her son had been diagnosed with "brain fever," an illness that also struck her later in life. Biographers question whether this mental instability was an inherited characteristic, as her father had also experienced a mental breakdown.

In 1876, Fanny was looking for inexpensive lodgings and found the Hotel Chevillon of Grezsur-Loing in the French countryside. This was the home of a famous colony of English-speaking artists, writers, and musicians, and it was here that she experienced a spiritual rebirth. Fanny was 35 and Belle 16 when they first met 24-year-old writer Robert Louis Stevenson, scion of a wealthy Edinburgh family who was living at the colony. That winter, they all returned to Paris, and Fanny began studies at the Julian Academy, an art school established for women. Sam arrived in Paris to bring Fanny home, but she refused to relinquish her life in France.

By the following year, Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson had become inseparable and lived openly together. Robert, like Sam, was a wanderer and adventurer. Although he had published his travel writings in journals and newspapers, he had not yet achieved literary fame. Robert suffered his entire life from chronic illnesses that confined him to bed, where he still managed to write daily. Fanny began her nearly 20-year quest to save him from his frequent bouts of consumption.

Fanny eventually returned to America out of concern for her daughter, because she did not want Belle to be a "fallen woman" like she herself had become; in 1879, Fanny settled in an artists' colony in Monterey, California. Despite overwhelming disapproval of their relationship from Fanny's family and Robert's parents and circle of literary friends, a quiet divorce was arranged. Robert came to America to retrieve Fanny and explore the countryside, resulting in two more books. Although sick and abandoned by his literary friends, Robert married Fanny in 1880.

In London after their marriage, Fanny eventually won over Robert's parents who agreed to an annual stipend to help support the family. His social circle, with the exception of Henry James, continued to hold mixed feelings about Fanny. Some claimed she was an amateur who exerted too strong an influence on him, while others credited her with keeping him alive to produce his greatest works. In a 1994 Library Journal review of Fanny Stevenson: A Romance of Destiny, Elizabeth Devereaux presents biographer Alexandra Lapierre 's synopsis of the literary world's assessment of Fanny: "According to whoever was doing the foreword, Fanny was a muse, a saint, the woman behind the genius, or she was a virago, a castrating bitch. The only agreement was that she had a lot of influence on his writing."

The years from 1884 to 1887 were happy ones for Fanny, who made a home in Bournemouth, England. It was also a period in which Robert Louis Stevenson achieved international fame with the publication of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1887, they returned to America, accompanied by Robert's widowed mother Margaret Balfour Stevenson . Soon after, Fanny separated briefly from her husband over a literary rift involving her publication of a story and accusations of plagiarism. She went to San Francisco in 1888 and then reunited with Belle who had married and was living in Honolulu.

Gathering her family back together again, Fanny suggested that they lease a ship, and for six months during 1888 and 1889, Fanny, her son Lloyd, Robert and his mother traveled the South Seas from the Marquesas Islands to Tahiti and Hawaii. Robert Stevenson's health improved remarkably during this trip. It was a time of political upheaval in the South Pacific. With native populations losing control of their own countries due to the influence of missionaries and white planters, Robert actively supported the islanders' rights to sovereignty. He also made a side trip, despite Fanny's protests, to visit Father Damien at the leper colony on Molokai, later publishing an impassioned essay supporting his work.

The Stevensons eventually settled on Samoa, where they purchased land and built a home they named Vailima. With the help of Samoan islanders, they carved a plantation out of the jungle, intending to raise coffee and cocoa. This work was largely due to Fanny's efforts. Together with Robert's mother and Fanny's children Lloyd and Belle, they lived a feudal life; Robert was in good health and writing every day. He also acted as a stepfather to Lloyd and to Belle's son. In 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson died of a stroke and, in accordance with his wish, was buried at the top of Mount Vaea on Samoa. Fanny remained on Vailima until 1897, when she was forced by lack of money and the political situation to sell the plantation.

Eventually she moved back to San Francisco and lived with Lloyd and his wife, working on her husband's literary estate. She published a new edition of his collected works, worked on his biography of Father Damien, and organized her journal of their South Seas travels. In 1914, she died of a stroke, and the following year her ashes were buried next to Robert's on Mount Vaea in Samoa. According to Devereaux, Lapierre regards Fanny as a modern thinker; Fanny "tries to have it all, but is not ahead of feminism, she is post-feminism—she takes her fight for freedom for granted. It's not that she always succeeds—she has many failures—but she dares."