Three Speeds Forward

In addition to being the stepson of Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he co-wrote three books, including The Wrecker, and contributed to others, Lloyd Osbourne was an American author who lived from April 7, 1868, to May 22, 1947. A variety of stories and essays were also written by Osbourne on his own, such as An Intimate Portrait of R L S by His Stepson (1924). Fanny Osbourne (née Vandegrift) and Samuel Osbourne, a lieutenant on the State Governor's staff, welcomed Lloyd Osbourne into the world in San Francisco. Isobel Osbourne, also known as "Belle," was born the year after their marriage, when Fanny was only seventeen years old. Samuel served in the American Civil War, traveled to California with a comrade who had tuberculosis, and then made his way through San Francisco to the Nevada silver mines. He sent his family there after settling there. Through New York City, the Panama Canal, San Francisco, and finally by wagons and stagecoach to the mining camps along the Reese River and the town of Austin in Lander County, Fanny, and the five-year-old Isobel undertook the arduous voyage.