Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson (1840-1914) was an American writer and the wife of famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Born in Indiana, she had a difficult childhood marked by the death of her mother and her father's alcoholism. Fanny married three times and had children, but she divorced her second husband and left her children in the care of relatives. In 1870, she met Robert Louis Stevenson in France, and they fell in love. They had a tumultuous relationship marked by Fanny's ill health and financial difficulties, but they eventually married and traveled extensively together. Fanny became an important source of inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson and was credited with influencing his writing. Despite her own struggles with illness, Fanny was a vivacious and adventurous woman who loved to travel. She died in 1914, several years after her husband. Although she did not have a literary career of her own, she is remembered today as the wife of one of the most famous authors of the 19th century.
