British Representative Nicholas Rankin was born way too late to employ the bragging right his predecessors had enjoyed, that of having a personal friendship wit
Carpenter’s Field today is a mini neighborhood behind the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage, which is on its north side. On its’ west side, it turns i
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Today begins a mini-series featuring one of several prominent members of the Stevenson Society of America in its formative years who had known Robert Louis Stevenson intimately and then outlived him. The story of this one begins in the American West. “Belle” is for Isobel, the older sister by 10 years of Lloyd Osbourne, the lucky American kid who got to have Robert Louis Stevenson for a partner and stepfather in many colorful enterprises, and to whom “Treasure Island” is dedicated. As Mrs. Isobel Field (her second marriage), Belle and Lloyd came to Saranac Lake in February 1917 at the invitation of the Stevenson Society, in which they were members, and the village of Saranac Lake. A headline from the Saranac Lake News, Feb. 8, 1917, reads: “ALL HONOR PAID STEVENSON FAMILY Stepchildren of Famous Author revisit Saranac Lake after Thirty Years Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne and Mrs. Salisbury Field, Entertained at the Baker Cottage, C
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“It was as a student that I first knew Fleeming” (pronounced Flemming), begins Part IV of Robert Louis Stevenson’s finest biographical piece. “His was an individual figure such as authors delight to draw, and all men to read of, in the pages of a novel.” Jenkin was one of Stevenson’s professors at Edinburgh University between 1867 and 1870 when Louis was in his late teens. Many years later when he was in Saranac Lake, the author of “Treasure Island” relived those student days in his essay called “The Education of an Engineer,” which appeared in the November 1888, issue of Scribners magazine.