Lloyd Osborne, for whom "Treasure Island" was written. (Photo provided)

“Saranac Lake, as well as the Stevenson Society, is to be congratulated on acquiring after weeks of effort, perhaps one of the greatest Stevenson relics in existence and which, as soon as it is delivered here by the Boston Public Library, upon orders from Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, will be placed on public exhibit at the Stevenson Cottage as a gift to the Society and an added attraction to the town.”

— Saranac Lake News, Nov. 13, 1916

Lloyd Osbourne was tall, thin, conceited, almost legally blind, “awkward and unattractive, indeed,” according to Blanche and Bertha Baker, twins who had to live just a few feet away from him and the rest of the Stevenson expedition in the winter of 1887-88.

Lloyd first shows up in the Stevenson story as an 8-year-old American kid from Oakland, California, fishing off a medieval bridge spanning the French river Loing, a tributary of the Seine River, near Paris. He was living in a cute little country village called Grez or Grez-sur-Loing, with his mother, Fanny, 34, and his sister, Isobel or “Belle,” 16. Both of them were there to study art but Lloyd was there to fish. Many years later Belle recalled those days in her book “This Life I’ve Loved”:

“Lloyd sat there day after day with pole and line. The peasants, passing the little blond boy on the bridge would wish him good day and ask his name. Not understanding, he always answered, ‘Fish!’ Before long he was known to the whole village as ‘Petit Feesh.'”

Grez-sur-Loing enjoys enhanced tourism value because it was the setting for one of the 19th century’s most enduring true love stories. Mrs. Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne said herself that it was a “romance of destiny” after she had become Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson. “Romance of Destiny” is also the title of a best-selling historical novel by Alexandre La Pierre, 1995, treating the same subject. Another book is “Under the Wide and Starry Sky” by Nancy Horan, 2015.

Lloyd was 12 when his recently divorced mother married “Luly,” Lloyd’s version of Louis. They had their ceremony in San Francisco on May 18, 1880. By then, Lloyd already had his toy printing press which he took with him on that famous honeymoon adventure on the side of a mountain, known in literature as The Silverado Squatters.

In late August 1880, Lloyd got to meet Luly’s parents at the Liverpool docks in England. He might even have showed them his press. Next stop was the world-famous health spa at Davos, Switzerland, for two entire winters. There, Lloyd got business savvy and used his press to make money but not the counterfeit kind. He approached the management of the “Belvedere” hotel where they were staying with a proposition. He put in a cheaper bid than all the competition to print out as required things like menus, concert programs, invitations and announcements, etc. They employed him.

If Lloyd was “awkward and unattractive, indeed,” and generally aloof and acting and sounding more English all the time, we still need to give him credit for the great service he rendered which greatly enriched English literature. It happened during the first year of his mother’s marriage to Louis. Lloyd was already settled into his envious role as the sidekick of Robert Louis Stevenson, unto death.

In the spring of 1881, the Stevenson expedition migrated to Scotland for the summer. By then, Lloyd was familiar with his stepfather’s literary output to date. Lloyd was a smart kid, like him or not and he spoke admirably for a 13-year-old critic. He extolled Louis’ books for their obvious qualities in terms of style and form and so on. The problem was in the boredom. Couldn’t he write something exciting with action, referring to the pulp fiction flooding their market featuring stories of the American West among other themes. Why couldn’t he do something like that?

Lloyd had planted a seed in a field of genius and it wasn’t long before the first fruits came for him to read, that being a draft of the first three chapters of a story he was calling “The Sea Cook.” This, of course, is the genesis of “Treasure Island.” Lloyd had led Louis like a horse to water, to his true calling–adventure stories. All this explains the presence of the following text in the front of all editions of “Treasure Island,” no matter how many languages are effected:

TO

LLOYD OSBOURNE

An American gentleman,

In accordance with whose classic taste

The following narrative has been designed,

It is now, in return for numerous delightful hours,

And with the kindest wishes,

Dedicated

By His affectionate friend,

The author

J.C. Furnas in his definitive biography, “Voyage to Windward–the Life of Robert Louis Stevenson,” said of Treasure Island: “I know of no more striking example of an artist taking a cheap, artificial set of commercialized values … and doing work of everlasting quality by changing nothing, transmutating everything, as if Jane Austen had ennobled soap-opera.”

Lloyd Osbourne was nineteen when he came to Saranac Lake. The year before he had dropped out of school in Bournemouth, England, to make room for writing lessons from Louis. After some false starts, Lloyd hit on a story with staying power which his stepfather noticed. It happened at Baker’s. Louis persuaded Lloyd to let him join in on this project, a comedy. Scribner’s went on to publish it as “The Wrong Box” in 1889, the first of three novels the pair would co-author. Stevenson’s mother, Margaret, saw it all happen, since her room opened onto the living room. She wrote all about it to her sister in Scotland:

“Louis and Lloyd breakfast rather early and work until lunch time. When they write in the sitting room, I keep up the fire in my stove and stay in my own room, which is very bright and cheery. If I want to go out without disturbing the two authors, I get out by the window.”

“The Wrong Box” became a four-star movie in 1966, filmed in Bournemouth, England, starring Michael Caine, Nanette Newman, Dudley Moor, Ralph Richardson, Peter Sellers and John Mills.

Lloyd and Louis were like two peas in a pod all the way to the end. In the case of Louis, that was Dec. 3, 1894. Lloyd describes the scene on top of Mt. Vaea on Dec. 4:

“We gathered about the grave and no cathedral could have seemed nobler or more hallowed than the grandeur of nature that encompassed us. What fabric of man’s hands could vie with so sublime a solitude? The sea in front, the primeval forest behind; crags, precipices, and distant cataracts gleaming in an untrodden wilderness. The words of the Church of England services, movingly delivered, broke the silence in which we stood. The coffin was lowered; flowers were strewn on it and then the hungry spades began to throw back the earth.”