https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Fanny_StevensonFanny Stevenson - Revision history2026-10-23T16:23:09ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fanny_Stevenson&diff=397977&oldid=prevWikiDwarfBOT: robot: add new article2023-07-22T09:20:48Z<p>robot: add new article</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American magazine writer (1840–1914)}}<br />
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{stack <br />
|{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Fanny Stevenson<br />
| image = Fanny Osbourne 1.png<br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_name = Frances Matilda Van de Grift<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1840|03|10}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Indianapolis, Indiana]], [[United States|U.S.]]<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1914|02|10|1840|03|10}}<br />
| death_place = [[Santa Barbara, California]], [[United States|U.S.]]<br />
| spouse = {{plainlist|<br />
* {{marriage|Samuel Osbourne|1857|1880}}<br />
* {{marriage|[[Robert Louis Stevenson]]|1880|1894}}<br />
}}<br />
| children = [[Isobel Osbourne]]<br>[[Lloyd Osbourne]]<br>Hervey Stewart Osbourne<br />
| relatives = [[Edward Salisbury Field]] (son-in-law)<br />
}}<br />
}}<br />
'''Frances "Fanny" Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson''' (10 March 1840 – 18 February 1914) was an American magazine writer.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://dangerouswomenproject.org/2017/01/06/a-dangerous-collaboration/|title=A Dangerous Collaboration - Dangerous Women Project|date=2017-01-06|work=Dangerous Women Project|access-date=2018-11-13|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://edrls.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/fanny-stevensons-short-stories/|title=Fanny Stevenson's short stories|date=2012-02-27|work=EdRLS|access-date=2018-11-13|language=en-US}}</ref> She became a supporter and later the wife of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], and the mother of [[Isobel Osbourne]], Samuel [[Lloyd Osbourne]], and Hervey Stewart Osbourne.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24332?msg=welcome_stranger|title=The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez|language=en-US}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Early life==<br />
Fanny Vandegrift was born in [[Indianapolis]], the daughter of builder Jacob Vandegrift and his wife Esther Thomas Keen.<ref name=":0" /> She was something of a [[tomboy]], and had dark curly hair. At the age of seventeen she married Samuel Osbourne, a lieutenant on the [[List of governors of Indiana|state governor's]] staff.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://stevensonmuseum.org/robert-louis-stevenson/the-life/family/fanny-stevenson/#Fanny1|title=Fanny Stevenson - Robert Louis Stevenson Museum|work=Robert Louis Stevenson Museum|access-date=2018-11-13|language=en-US}}</ref> Their daughter Isobel (or 'Belle') was born the following year.<br />
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Samuel fought in the [[American Civil War]], went with a friend sick with [[tuberculosis]] to [[California]],<ref name=":0" /> and ended up in the silver mines of [[Nevada]]. Once settled there he sent for his family. 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, Nevada|Austin]] in [[Lander County, Nevada|Lander County]].<ref name=":1" /> 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.<br />
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The family moved to [[Virginia City, Nevada]], and it was whilst living here that Samuel began to be unfaithful to Fanny.<ref name=":0" /> In 1866 he headed off gold prospecting in the [[Coeur d'Alene Mountains]], and Fanny and her daughter journeyed to San Francisco.<ref name=":0" /> There was a rumour that Sam had been killed by a [[grizzly bear]], but he returned to the family safe, and a second child [[Lloyd Osbourne|Samuel Lloyd]] was born in 1868. But Samuel continued philandering, and Fanny returned to Indianapolis.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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The couple were reconciled again in 1869, and lived in [[Oakland, California]], where a second son, Hervey, was born. Fanny took up painting and gardening. However, Sam's behaviour did not improve, and Fanny finally left him in 1875 and moved with her three children to Europe. They lived in [[Antwerp]] for three months, and then to allow Fanny to study art, they moved to Paris where Fanny and Isobel both enrolled in the [[Académie Julian]]. Hervey, sick with scrofulous [[tuberculosis]], died on 5 April 1876, and was buried in a temporary grave at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]].<ref name=":1" /><br />
<br />
==With Stevenson==<br />
[[File:Fanny Stevenson.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Fanny Stevenson. [[Bournemouth]], 1885]]<br />
After Hervey's death, Fanny moved to [[Grez-sur-Loing]], where she met and befriended [[Robert Louis Stevenson]].<ref name=":2" /> A 1916 recollection of her by [[L. Birge Harrison]] (published in the Centenary Magazine) recalls, "That she was a woman of intellectual attainments is proved by the fact that she was already a magazine writer of recognized ability, and that at the moment when Stevenson first came into her life she was making a living for herself and her two children with her pen."<ref name=":0" /> Convinced of his talent, she encouraged and inspired him. He became deeply attached to her, but Fanny returned abruptly to California.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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In 1878 Fanny cabled Stevenson that she planned to leave her husband. Stevenson announced his intention of following her, but his parents refused to pay for it, so he saved for three years to pay his own way. In 1879, despite protests of family and friends, Stevenson went to [[Monterey, California]], where Fanny was recovering from an emotional breakdown related to indecision about whether to leave her philandering husband.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://thedynamiter.llc.ed.ac.uk/?page_id=204|title=Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson – Deciphering The Dynamiter|website=thedynamiter.llc.ed.ac.uk|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-13}}</ref> Stevenson wrote many of his most 'muscular' essays in Monterey while awaiting Fanny's decision.<br />
<br />
The lady ultimately chose Stevenson, divorced Osbourne, and in May 1880 she and Stevenson were married in San Francisco. A few days later, the couple left for a honeymoon in the [[Napa County, California|Napa Valley]], where Stevenson produced his work ''[[Silverado Squatters]]''. He later wrote ''[[The Amateur Emigrant]]'' in two parts about his passage to America: ''From the Clyde to Sandy Hook'' and ''Across the Plains''. His middle-class friends were shocked by his travel with the lower classes; it was not published in full in his lifetime, and his father bought up most copies.<br />
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In August 1880, the family moved to Great Britain, where Fanny helped to patch things up between Robert and his father. Always in search of a climate conducive to Stevenson's ailing health, the couple travelled to the [[Adirondacks]] in the US. <br />
<br />
In 1888, Fanny Stevenson published a short story, "The Nixie", which [[William Ernest Henley]] recognized as based on [[Katharine de Mattos]]'s idea they had discussed the previous year. He wrote to her husband: "Why there wasn't a double signature is what I've not been able to understand."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://robert-louis-stevenson.org/friends/|title=Friends {{!}} Robert Louis Stevenson|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-05}}</ref> This accusation of [[plagiarism]] led to a bitter quarrel and rupture of the Stevensons with Henley and de Mattos.<ref>Frank McLynn. ''Robert Louis Stevenson: a Biography''. Hutchinson, 1993. {{ISBN|9780091776381}}. P. 290.</ref><br />
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In 1888, the Stevensons chartered the ''Casco'' out of San Francisco and sailed to [[Western Samoa]]. Later voyages on the ''[[Equator (schooner)|Equator]]''<ref>''In the South Seas'' (1896) & (1900) Chatto & Windus; republished by The Hogarth Press (1987). A collection of Stevenson's articles and essays on his travels in the Pacific</ref> and ''Janet Nicoll'' with Fanny's son Lloyd Osbourne followed.<ref name="fanny1914">[https://archive.org/details/cruiseofthejanet010315mbp ''The Cruise of the Janet Nichol Among the South Sea Islands''], A Diary by Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson, [[Charles Scribner's Sons]], New York, 1914, republished 2004, editor, Roslyn Jolly (U. of Washington Press/U. of New South Wales Press)</ref> They settled in [[Upolu]], at their home [[Vailima, Samoa|Vailima]], where Stevenson died on 3 December 1894.<br />
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==Return to California==<br />
After Stevenson's death, Fanny returned to California to begin a new life in America and Europe with an adoring companion decades her junior, newsman [[Edward Salisbury Field|Edward "Ned" Salisbury Field]].<br />
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==Death and legacy==<br />
[[File:Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885]]<br />
When Fanny died in [[Santa Barbara, California]], Ned Field, her last companion-in-adventure, described her as "the only woman in the world worth dying for." Soon after, he married her daughter [[Isobel Osbourne]]. In 1915, Fanny's ashes were taken by her daughter to [[Samoa]] where they were interred next to Stevenson on top of [[Mount Vaea]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EE29rkc7DM0C&q=Fanny+Stevenson+ashes+Mount+Vaea&pg=PA207<br />
|title=Robert Louis Stevenson: interviews and recollections|first=Reginald Charles|last=Terry|year=1996|page=207|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=0-87745-512-0|access-date=1 July 2010}}</ref> The bronze plaque for Fanny bears her Samoan name 'Aolele' (''Flying Cloud'' in [[Samoan language|Samoan]]).<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10873543|title=Samoa: Tales of the teller live on|last=Yousef|first=Robyn|date=2013-03-26|newspaper=New Zealand Herald|language=en-NZ|issn=1170-0777|access-date=2016-11-29}}</ref><br />
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The actress [[Aline Towne]] played Fanny in the 1958 episode "The Great Amulet" of the [[broadcast syndication|syndicated television]] [[anthology series]] ''[[Death Valley Days]]'', hosted by [[Stanley Andrews]]. The episode focuses on Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, a role played by Don Reardon. The "Great Amulet" is revealed at the conclusion of the episode.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556793/?ref_=ttep_ep11|title=The Great Amulet on ''Death Valley Days''|publisher=[[IMDb|Internet Movie Database]]|access-date=September 1, 2018}}</ref><br />
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In 2004 [[Pamela Stephenson]] spent a year on a sailing cruise around the South Pacific Ocean, following the path of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson. Her travels were documented in her 2005 book ''Treasure Islands''.<ref>Stephenson, Pamela (2005). ''Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the Wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson''. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7553-1285-6.</ref><br />
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== Bibliography ==<br />
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=== Short stories ===<br />
<br />
* 'Too Many Birthdays' (St. Nicholas, 1878)<br />
* 'Sargent's Rodeo' (Lippincot's Magazine, Jan. 1880)<br />
* 'Chy Lung, The Chinese Fisherman' (St. Nicholas, 1880)<br />
* 'The Warlock's Shadow' (Belgravia, 1886)<br />
* 'Miss Pringle's Neighbors' (Scribner's Magazine, 1887)<br />
* 'The Nixie' (Scribner's Magazine, 1888)<br />
* 'The Half-White' (Scribner's Magazine, 1891)<br />
* 'Under Sentence of the Law: The Story of a Dog' (McClure's, 1893)<br />
* 'Anne' (Scribner's Magazine, 1899)<br />
<br />
=== With Robert Louis Stevenson ===<br />
<br />
* ''[[More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter]]'' (1885)<br />
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=== Diary ===<br />
* The Cruise of the Janet Nicol (1914 - published posthumously)<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* ''Dead Man's Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson'', [[Nicholas Rankin]], {{ISBN|0-571-13808-X}}<br />
* ''Tales of Love and Hate in Old San Francisco'', Millie Robbins. Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1971. {{ASIN|B0006C0QVA}}<br />
* ''Robert Louis Stevenson's Ethics for Rascals'', Elayne Wareing Fitzpatrick, Xlibris Books, Philadelphia, 2000. {{ISBN|0-7388-3548-X}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}<br />
* ''Fanny Stevenson: Muse, Adventuress and Romantic Enigma'', Alexandra Lapierre. Carroll & Graf, N.Y., 1995. {{ISBN|978-1857023824}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Stevenson,+Fanny+Van+de+Grift | name=Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson}}<br />
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Fanny Stevenson}}<br />
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{{Robert Louis Stevenson}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Fanny}}<br />
[[Category:1840 births]]<br />
[[Category:1914 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century American short story writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century American women writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]<br />
[[Category:American people of Dutch descent]]<br />
[[Category:Robert Louis Stevenson]]<br />
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]<br />
[[Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom]]<br />
[[Category:American expatriates in Samoa]]<br />
[[Category:Stevenson family (Scotland)]]</div>WikiDwarfBOT