The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press)

Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (1840-1914) was the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson and mother of Isobel and Lloyd Osbourne. She was born in Indianapolis, the daughter of builder Jacob Van de Grift, and his wife Esther Thomas Keen. She was something of a tomboy, and had dark curly hair. At the age of seventeen she married Samuel Osbourne, a lieutenant on the State Governor's staff. Their daughter Isobel (or 'Belle') was born the following year. Samuel fought in the American Civil War, went with a friend sick with tuberculosis to California, and via San Francisco, he ended up in the silver mines of Nevada. Fanny and the five-year-old Isobel made the long journey via New York, the isthmus of Panama, San Francisco, and finally by wagons and stage-coach to the mining camps of the Reese River, and the town of Austin in Lander County. Life was difficult in the mining town, and there were few women around. Fanny learned to shoot a pistol and to roll her own cigarettes. Her biography by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez (1856-1935) was published in 1920 with the title The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson.