17 Facts About Fanny Stevenson

Frances Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson was an American magazine writer.

Fanny Stevenson became a supporter and later the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the mother of Isobel Osbourne, Samuel Lloyd Osbourne, and Hervey Stewart Osbourne.

Fanny Stevenson Vandegrift was born in Indianapolis, the daughter of builder Jacob Vandegrift and his wife Esther Thomas Keen.

Fanny Stevenson was something of a tomboy, and had dark curly hair.

Fanny Stevenson learned to shoot a pistol and to roll her own cigarettes.

Sam's behavior did not improve and Fanny Stevenson finally left him in 1875, moving with her three children to Europe.

In 1885, Fanny Stevenson became the aunt of Elsie Lincoln Benedict, a future American suffragist and renowned public speaker.

Fanny Stevenson became deeply attached to her, but Fanny returned abruptly to California.

In 1878 Fanny cabled Stevenson that she planned to leave her husband.

Fanny 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.

The lady ultimately chose Fanny Stevenson, divorced Osbourne, and in May 1880 she and Fanny Stevenson were married in San Francisco.

Fanny Stevenson later wrote The Amateur Emigrant in two parts about his passage to America: From the Clyde to Sandy Hook and Across the Plains.

Always in search of a climate conducive to Fanny Stevenson's ailing health, the couple travelled to the Adirondacks in the US.

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.

Fanny Stevenson liked the idea, but he didn't want to direct a remake, and he noticed that there wasn't a female character in the book.

Fanny Stevenson's travels were documented in her 2005 book Treasure Islands.