Another famous couple

Nancy Horan, who brought us into the lives of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Loving Frank, once again brings us into the lives of another famous couple.  Her latest work is Under the Wide and Starry Sky which is the evolving saga of the marriage of Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny van de Grift Osbourne. Stevenson has spent his life fighting the lung ailments which often rendered him an invalid.  While vacationing among the Bohemian set in France, he meet Fanny van de Grift Osbourne, an American divorce with children who is many years his senior.  Nonetheless, Stevenson falls in love with Fanny.  They spend their lives together creating art and literature, fighting insolvency and Stevenson's declining health.  Stevenson was a prolific writer of novels (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), travel writings, letters and poetry which is an amazing body of work considering his ill health.


So, my offspring tell me that retro is in - in terms of cocktails, jewelry, accessories and interior design.   Let's extend retro to literature.  For all of us who were regaled with the antics of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean, pick up the original pirate story - Treasure Island.  Shiver me timbers!  Yo ho ho!