Author shares inspirations for 'Under the Wide and Starry Sky'

Nearing the end of a month-long books tour for her second novel, author Nancy Horan stopped in Palm Beach on Thursday to speak to members of the MorseLife Literary Society.

“I’ve been in Chicago, when it was 3 below,” Horan said during a breakfast meeting at The Colony. “I’ve been in Philadelphia when there was an ice storm. This is just perfection. I’m going to get some sand in my toes after this.”

Horan, who was the first author to speak to the society during its 2009 inaugural season, is the group’s first repeat author. Her second book, Under the Wide and Starry Sky, was published last month.

Mary Alice Pappas, founder of the literary society, introduced Horan, saying the group has been waiting “not so patiently” for her to write her second novel after Loving Frank, which sold more than 1 million copies.

“Nancy takes up what has become a popular sub-genre of literary fiction as she takes a deep dive into a renowned male artist’s life by focusing on his lover, muse or mistress,” Pappas said. “This masterful new novel re-creates a unique and passionate and overwhelmingly powerful story of the famous 19th-century Scottish literary giant, Robert Louis Stevenson, and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne.”

Horan came upon their story when she was visiting California’s Monterey Bay area, where Stevenson lived for awhile. Horan, a literature major, had read his two most famous works: Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Woman changed him

“It was discovering his connection to America that really grabbed me. In particular, I wanted to know about this woman who so totally upended his life and set him off in a new direction,” Horan said. “In researching this book, I came across two big personalities and a dynamic relationship that was worth exploring. … Their life together turned out to be as hair-raising and as adventurous as his novels.”

Osbourne was 10 years older than Stevenson — and married, with children — when they met.

Horan described Osbourne as having “grit. She was incredibly adventurous, carried a pistol and rolled her own cigarettes … and she could make furniture out of logs. … She was not only brave, but she was riddled with flaws, and I love that in a character.”

Looking to escape her unhappy marriage, Osbourne took her three children to France so that she could study art. After her youngest son became ill and died, Osbourne retreated to an artists’ colony outside of Paris. That’s where she met Stevenson.

Horan said Stevenson was “a great pillar of strength” for Osbourne during her grieving.

Horan described Stevenson as a “slender, eccentric, romantic young man who really favored Bohemian style” when he set out across the Atlantic, in steerage, to reunite with Osbourne — who had returned to California — and win her over.

The two eventually married, but Stevenson was always sick. He had a serious lung condition and hadn’t yet made it as a writer.

“On Fanny’s part, it was love, because for a woman to marry a sickly man who was broke and had not established his reputation — that was to dare everything,” she said.