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Why did Robert Louis Stevenson travel to California in 1879?
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson's famous works include the adventure novel Treasure Island (1881).
Robert Louis Stevenson traveled to California in August 1879 to join Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, an American woman with whom he had fallen in love after meeting her in 1876.1
Although his parents strongly disapproved of his involvement with a woman who was then married, Stevenson was determined to reunite with her. He undertook an arduous journey to reach her, arriving in California ill and penniless. His time there, which included living in Monterey and San Francisco, culminated in their marriage in early 1880 after she had obtained a divorce from her first husband.1