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Mrs. Fanny Osbourne, 34, had thrown convention to the winds in the summer of 1875, when she announced that she was leaving her cheating husband, Sam Osbourne, in California, and taking their three children to Europe for a dramatic change. Such behavior by a woman was frowned upon in the 19th century more than today, and Fanny got a lot of pushback from all sides. But she was one strong-willed and determined woman who was already engaged in revolutionary behavior like rolling and smoking cigarettes and carrying a gun. Books written about Fanny because she had the courage to take the leap have in recent years made her a kind of cult figure among women. This phenomenon has been observed at the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage in Saranac Lake, NY, since 1995 with the appearance of A Romance of Destiny by Alexandre Lapierre, and again with Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, 2014.
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Virginia City, “Bonanza” country, is where the Cartwright brothers Adam, Hoss and Little Joe go to do business and get in trouble in TV Land. The famous Comstock Lode made Virginia City the biggest silver mining operation in the USA for much of the 19th century, and so it attracted a big enough population to support 120 saloons and 800 prostitutes, with an average consumption of 16,000 quarts of whiskey a week. That spiked dramatically when they threw the biggest, most drunkest celebration ever on account of the end of the Civil War. It lasted over a week, and the agony of the hangover was intensified by the news of Lincoln’s assassination.
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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