R.L.S. and Belle — Sydney, Australia, 1893 (Photo provided)

“The annual meeting of the Stevenson Society of America was held at the Memorial Cottage, Saturday, Aug. 23, 1930, before the customary large gathering of Stevenson-lovers from far and near. Showers prevented out-door activities, but the verandah and ground floor rooms (in so far as their dimensions permitted) provided shelter for the faithful ones whose enthusiasm evidenced their affection for R.L.S. and their undying loyalty to his memory. At the request of Colonel Walter Scott, president of the Society, the audience rose while the Rev. George Boys, D.D., offered the following invocation …”

— From the General Report for 1930, Stevenson Society of America, Inc.

The secretary, Livingston Chapman, then read his annual report, which began with a list of new additions to the society’s collection of Robert Louis Stevenson memorabilia. Mr. Pirie MacDonald, of Scotland, sent three costly framed photos he took of RLS portraits, which hang today on a wall in Stevenson’s former bedroom at Baker’s. More books were sent, including four more first editions — also some letters from Sir Graham Balfour, Stevenson’s cousin, first biographer and now the newest British Representative for the Stevenson Society, following the death of Sir Edmund Gosse.

Prior to the unveiling of the most remarkable new items, a poetic tribute to RLS by the late Bliss Carman was recited:

“He was not born for age. Ah, no,

For everlasting youth is his!

Part of the lyric of the earth

With spring and leaf and blade he is.”

Then a champion piper from the New York Caledonian Club went through the rooms playing typical Scottish tunes on his bagpipes (it was raining). Then the mysterious veil dominating a corner of the room was removed followed by its secretary’s remarks:

“Another of our members, Mr. J.P. Jefferson, of Santa Barbara, Cal., has greatly enriched our collection by the gift of two paintings. One is by Mrs. Will H. Low. In response to my request to her husband that he furnish us with descriptions of them, I submit the following:

‘This painting by Mary Fairchild Low (Mrs. Will H. Low) reproduces, in an almost deceptive manner, the sculptural medallion portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson by Augustus Saint-Gaudens as it is built into the chimney breast of their studio at Bronxville, N.Y. The first cast from the mould of the medallion was given by the sculptor to his painter-friend as the latter was influential in bringing together the sculptor and the author, resulting in the making of the best existing portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson. The verses inscribed upon the background of the medallion are those addressed to Mr. Low by R.L.S.”

Today this painting hangs in the author’s former bedroom at Baker’s, right over the bed he used there, the one he wrote in.

“For the other painting Mr. Low writes, ‘This sketch once formed part of the painting in the inn at Grez in France, made memorable by the sojourn of Robert Louis Stevenson in 1876-78. It was there that he met his future wife and with a gay company of his friends passed away many care-free and happy hours. Grez is on the river Loing, there was much canoeing and one of the water sports were ‘regattas,’ when the participants were required to paddle across the river in tubs. Few could manage the unwieldy craft; but among those who shone in the contest was one, Henry Enfield by name, a good comrade of R.L.S., whose exploits were commemorated in this sketch by Will H. Low in 1877. The panel was found on the wall of the inn in 1927 by Mr. John Percival Jefferson, who purchased it, and has presented it to the Stevenson Society of America.'”

Colonel and President Walter Scott then gave his annual talk, during which he said of their Stevenson Cottage: “We have preserved a frail, temporal monument and a few relics as a passive testimony to a genius handicapped by disease which he faced with manly courage and intrepid fortitude …”

Will H. Low, the painter and friend of RLS who is quoted above, was back in town that day by request to be guest speaker at the annual meeting for a second time. The report says that “Mr. Low was received with great enthusiasm.”

Will Low of the inner circle of the late RLS, seemed to have picked up just where he had left off, seven years prior in 1923, when he was doing the same thing, performing as guest speaker, telling an enthralled audience about his rich memories of enjoying youth in France with Louis and all their bohemian comrades.

Of particular interest this time was a letter he had received and then lost for decades, before turning up in time to be read out loud at this meeting. It is dated Jan. 30, 1892, from Stevenson’s step-daughter, Mrs. Isobel Strong, at the time. (Better known as “Belle” she re-married in 1915 to Salisbury “Ned” Field). This letter came from Vailima, Stevenson’s name for his island jungle home in the South Seas, high atop a plateau, where he died and is buried.

Today Vailima is the most recent (1994) Robert Louis Stevenson “shrine” to go public as a museum, with a Pacific Ocean view and good weather all year. The Vailima foundation has money but their museum comes up short if genuine RLS “sacred relics” from the Vailima household are what you think you want to see. For that, you have to come to Saranac Lake, where they have been kept at Baker’s for over a century.

This letter from Belle that Low produced to read on the porch, has largely avoided detection by academics because of its obscurity. Belle wrote it by request of RLS himself. The context was another letter Louis had received from Low first. From Belle’s text: “He handed me your letter and begged me to answer it, to describe Vailima, our daily life and surroundings …”

What Low went on to read was a uniquely rare eyewitness account of Vailima and the daily life and surroundings of the Stevenson household in its glory as only Belle could tell it. The annual meeting ended soon thereafter. Will Hickock Low had made his last journey to the “Hunter’s Home” in Saranac Lake but he did leave three of his paintings here.