Nancy Horan’s first bestselling historical novel Loving Frank examined the complicated personal life of Frank Lloyd Wright. During a conversation at a recent luncheon for the Children’s Center For the Visually Impaired, Nancy shared her thoughts on her second bestselling novel, Under the Wide and Starry Sky, which explores the improbable love affair between Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his American wife Fanny Osbourne.
“Writing historical fiction about real people allows me to go inside the rooms where they converse and go about their lives, so that I (and the reader) can feel the tension or warmth in those rooms, and imagine the humanity beyond the biographical facts. I can explore the ‘why’ questions that arise out of the facts of the subjects’ lives.”
Asked how she “bumped into” another interesting dynamic woman whose life was hidden in history behind her famous husband, Nancy said that she was visiting the Monterey Bay area and was surprised to learn that Stevenson had lived there in 1879. She was puzzled what the Scottish author of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was doing there. She soon learned that he had come to California seeking to marry an American woman he had met at an artists’ colony in France. Nancy’s curiosity was aroused. “Who was this Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne who drew Stevenson half way around the world?”
Further research revealed, “The Stevensons were two extraordinary people, not only by their natural gifts, but by their spirits and grit as well. When I learned about their amazing life together, and a love challenged by convention, geography and illness, I knew they would be good company. How could I resist them?”
The novel explores the perspectives of both Louis (as he calls himself) and Fanny. Nancy explained: “I wanted to show how roles can change over time, how a long-term relationship can be both beautiful and thorny, and how you can lose yourself in the institution. At the same time I wanted to explore the strengths of long-term devotion and commitment. “
When asked if writing about real people is both a blessing and a curse, Nancy replied, “I am drawn to big personalities and stories with powerful arcs that I see when I set out, and I feel that because the people are fascinating to me, they have the potential to be fascinating to readers. That is the blessing. The challenge then comes in finding the inherent conflicts and shaping the story so that the reader feels suspense from the uncertainty they feel about complicated personalities who are given to unpredictable choices. Some of their struggles are against forces over which they have limited control, while other struggles arise out of their flaws. It’s the personal frailties that are especially interesting to me. Stevenson was often bedbound by a serious lung ailment, yet he was a literary athlete. Fanny, who was ten years older, appeared fearless on the outside, but was easily wounded. For Louis’ health Fanny embarked with him on a two-year voyage in the South Seas, despite the fact that she was seasick every day. She saved Louis’ life time and again.“
The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals who shaped each other’s artistic lives and accomplishments unfolds as a passionate and unpredictable adventure equal to one of Stevenson’s own classic tales.
Etched into a bronze plaque on the tomb Fanny shares with her husband in Samoa is the tribute he wrote to her:
Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,
A fellow-farer true through life,
Heart-whole and soul free
The august father gave to me
