Nellie Van De Grift Sanchez

The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson (Esprios Classics) Nellie Van De Grift Sanchez

The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson (1920) is a biography by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez (1856-1935). Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (1840-1914) was the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson and mother of Isobel and Lloyd Osbourne. She was born in Indianapolis, the daughter of builder Jacob Van de Grift, and his wife Esther Thomas Keen. She was something of a tomboy, and had dark curly hair. At the age of seventeen she married Samuel Osbourne, a lieutenant on the State Governor's staff. Their daughter Isobel (or 'Belle') was born the following year. Samuel fought in the American Civil War, went with a friend sick with tuberculosis to California, and via San Francisco, he ended up in the silver mines of Nevada.