THE LIFE OF
MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
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Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson during the English period
THE LIFE OF
MRS. ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON
BYNELLIE VAN DE GRIFT SANCHEZ
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1921
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
CHARLES
SCRIBNER'S SONS
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Published February, 1920
Reprinted April, 1921
THE SCRIBNER PRESS
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ISOBEL FIELD
IN TOKEN OF OUR COMMON LOVE FOR
HER WHOSE LIFE STORY IS TOLD IN ITS
PAGES
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
PREFACE
WHEN I first set out to tell the life story of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, I received the following letter from her old friend Mr. Bruce Porter: "Once when I urged your sister to set down the incidents of her life she listened, pondered, and then dismissed the suggestion as impossible, as her life had been like a dazed rush on a railroad express, and she despaired of recovering the incidental memories. The years with Stevenson have of course been adequately told, but the earlier period-- Indianapolis and California-- had a romance as stirring, even if sharpened by the American glare. This sharpness has already, for all of us, begun to fade, to take on the glamour of time and distance, and I cannot think of a better literary service than to make the fullest possible record now, before it utterly fades away."
It was not only the difficulty of recalling events that caused her to resist all urgings to undertake this task, but a certain shy reluctance in speaking of herself that was characteristic of her. It has, therefore, fallen to me to collect the widely scattered material from various parts of the world and weave it into a coherent whole as best I may, but my regret will never cease that she did not herself tell her own story.
It would take a more competent pen than mine to do her justice; but whoever reads this book from page: viii[View Page viii] cover to cover will surely agree that no woman ever had a life of more varied experiences nor went through them all with a stauncher courage.
- Ancestral genealogies, including The Descendants of Joran Kyn, by Doctor Gregory B. Keen, secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
- Data concerning the genealogy of the Keen and Van de Grift families collected by Frederic Thomas, of New York, nephew of Mrs. Stevenson.
- Notes covering the life of Mrs. Stevenson up to the age of sixteen years, as dictated by herself.
- A collection of her own letters to friends and relatives.
- Letters to Mrs. Stevenson from friends.
- Extracts from various books and magazines, including The Letters of Mrs. M. I. Stevenson (Methuen and Company, London); The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Graham Balfour; The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Sidney Colvin; Vailima Memories, by Lloyd Osbourne and Isobel Osbourne Strong, now Mrs. Salisbury Field; The Cruise of the Janet Nichol, by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson; McClure's, Scribner's, and the Century magazines. Acknowledgment is due the publishers of the above books and periodicals for their courteous permissions.
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- A diary kept by Mrs. Stevenson of her life in Samoa, for which I am indebted to the considerate kindness of Miss Gladys Peacock, an English lady, into whose hands the diary fell by accident.
- My own personal recollections.
Above all, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, Isobel Field, without whose unflagging zeal in forwarding the work it could scarcely have been carried to a successful conclusion, and to my son, Louis A. Sanchez, for valuable assistance in the actual writing of the book.
N. V. S.
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, January, 1919.
page: [x][View Page [x]] page: xi[View Page xi]CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
- ANCESTORS 1
- EARLY DAYS IN INDIANA 9
- ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 26
- FRANCE, AND THE MEETING AT GREZ 42
- IN CALIFORNIA WITH ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 55
- EUROPE AND THE BRITISH ISLES 82
- AWAY TO SUNNIER LANDS 124
- THE HAPPY YEARS IN SAMOA 167
- THE LONELY DAYS OF WIDOWHOOD 226
- BACK TO CALIFORNIA 260
- TRAVELS IN MEXICO AND EUROPE 279
- THE LAST DAYS AT SANTA BARBARA 297
ILLUSTRATIONS
- Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson during the English period
Frontispiece - FACING PAGE
- John Keen, about 83 years of age, maternal great-grandfather
of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson 2 - Jacob Van de Grift, about 56 years of age, father of Fanny
Van de Grift Stevenson 6 - The Van de Grift residence at the corner of Illinois and
Michigan Streets, Indianapolis 22 - The bridge at Grez 46
- Fanny Osbourne at about the time of her first meeting with
Robert Louis Stevenson 48 - Robert Louis Stevenson in the French days 50
- Fanny Osbourne at the time of her marriage to Robert
Louis Stevenson 78 - The house at Vailima with the additions made to the first
structure 194 - Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson 262
- The house at Hyde and Lombard Streets, San Francisco,
with some alterations in the way of bay windows, etc.,
which have been made since Mrs. Stevenson sold it 266 - The house at Vanumanutagi ranch 274
- Stonehedge at Santa Barbara 298
- The last portrait of Mrs. Stevenson 306
- The funeral procession as it wound up the hill332
- The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from
Stevenson's poem to his wife 386
