MRS. "R.L.S" THE NOVELIST'S WIDOW

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 78, 2 April 1914, Page 2

MRS. "R.L.S" THE NOVELIST'S WIDOW

A STRONG CHARACTER (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 20tk, Febiuary. Anyone who has read the letters of R. L. Stevenson must recognise how much his wife was to him, and how much of his literary work the world owes to her. Sirs. Stevenson, who has just died of apoplexy at her home at Montecito, California, was a woman of remarkable strength of character and literary taste and judgment. Born in Indiana in 1838 of an old Dutch family (tho Van de Grifte), she married Samuel Osboume when .scarcely twenty years old and went to live in California. Three children were born, two boys and a girl ; but the marriage was an unhappy one, and when Mid. Osbourne went to Paris for the education of the children in 1876 it was practically a separation. She lived in the art circles of the French ' capital, where she met Stevenson, tljen a delicate young man of twenty-six, by no means established in literary fame. One of Mrs. Osbourne's boys died in Paris, and in 1879 she took her family back to California. Stevenson was already much •attached to her, and it was not long before he also went to California, travelling by steamer as a- steerage passenger and across the continent as an emigrant. The experience provided the groundwork for some of his best known work, but it inflicted great injury on his feeble health, and after reaching California he suffered from a complication of pleurisy, malaria] fever, and exhaustion. A few months later Mrs. Osbourne was granted a divorce from her husband, and in May, 1880, she and Stevenson weie married. Ho had not yet recovered from his illness and she took him to stay at a deserted mining camp near Calisto'ga, in the Californian Coast Range, where he gradually pulled round. It was here that ue gathered the material for " The Silverado Squatters." A month or two later he was fit to travel, and Stevenson proceeded at once to Edinburgh to introduce his wife to the family circle. His letters show that he had some little anxiety as? to her reception, but from the first' the family became strongly attached to her. THE WANDERERS. The novelist's health made it now quits impossible for him to reside in England or Scotland, and the couple ' commenced that series of wanderings which • only ended with his death in Samoa. He had. chronic lung\disease, and suffered intervals of severed exhaustion. They tried all the health coasts of Europe without avail, and' finally in 1887, after his father's death, Stevenson packed up and crossgd with his wife and her two children to America. They spent about a year in the Adirondacks, and tlien entered upon that very prolific cruise in the Pacific. This at last proved efficacious^ The best health he had enjoyed since his youth was found on the waters of the Pacific, and Stevenson eventually decided to make his home in Samoa. There, on th» mountain side above Apia they built their house, and they lived a somewhat seignioriat life amongst the Samoans, receiving periodical visits from visiting Europeans. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson there was Mrs. Stevenson's daughter. Mrs. Strong, with her son Austin (now a celebrated playwright) ; Airs. Stevenson's scm Lloyd Osbourne, who collaborated with Stevenson in " The Wreckers," "The Ebb Tide," and other works, and who died : <a few months ago ; and finally Robett- Louis's mother, in addition to the household. In Somoa \ Stevenson was supremely happy and did, much of his best work Gradually his English correspondence dwindled until eventually his most important correspondent was Sir Sidney Colvin, for thirty years keeper of the prints at tile British Museum. Colvin acted as a sort of literary agent and adviser for Stevenson, but the mentor to whom he owed most of his success in style was his wife, whose own literary ability, it may safely be said, never found adequate expression. It is true that she collaborated in "The Dynamiter" and to the second series of "Arabian Nights" she contributed "The Destroying Angel" and "The Fair Cuban," but she contributed scarcely Jess tangibly to Stevenson's own work. She was a most severe judge, and except "The Black Arrow" it is said Stevenson published , nothing after his marriage without her approval. He insisted upon pleasing her in what he wa-ote, and time and again he tore up a chapter and re-wrote it to suit her criticism. The first draft of "Jekyll and Hyde" is said to have been destioyed because she condemned it. One chapter of "Prince Otto" was re-written eight times until it pleased her. She was a, perfect companion for such a man. She took the liveliest personal interest in everything he wrote and entered fully into all his strange tastes and hobbies and wanderings. In his "Songs of Travel" he writes : — "L rusty, dusky, vivid, true, < With eyes of gold and bramble dew Steel-true and blade - straight, The Great Artificer Made my mate. "Honour, anger, valour, fire, v A love that life could never tire, Death quench nor evil stir, The Mighty Master Gave to her." AFTER STEVENSON'S DEATH. "Tusitala," as the natives called Stevenson, was worshipped by them, and they" found no better adviser during the troublesome days of the Malictoa v/ars, when Stevenson acted as mediator between the combatants. After he died, in 1894, Mrs. Stevenson tried to remain on at Vailima, but for.nd she could not. Tho climate did not suit Lloyd Osbouvne and &110 could not remain thero alone. In 1896 she sold the house and estate to Herr Knnz, the well-known banker and fur- trader 01 Vladivostok, who used to winter in the South Seas. On his doath it passed to the German Government, who made it the lesidence of tho GowrniV. Mrs. Stevenson always retained possession of the plot of land on the top ot Mount Vaea where Stevensoh was buried. Mrs. Stevenson cyme to England for a while ond then returned to California, where plir had lived ever sinco. She built a country house at Santa Barbara, near Francisco, where she made special provision for the housing _of the Stevenson relics and manuscripts. During the fire following the earthquakes tho Bohemian Club successfully directed their efforts toward*- saving the treasures of their old friend. Mrs». Steven snnV. daughter, Isobel Oshournc. married a California .irtist, ,T. D. St"on<r. and their son Austin is known to-day^ as the author of "The .Drums of O'l'Je," "The Toymakm- of Nuremberg,'' and \Rlp \-an \Vinklp."' With Lloyd Osbourne he wrote " The Exile" and "The Little Father of the Wilderness."'

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