Master of Saranac Lake

During the winter of 1887-88, a Master emerged

Story by Jenni McEwen

"I was walking one night in the verandah of a small house in which I lived, outside the hamlet of Saranac. It was winter; the night was very dark; the air extraordinary clear and cold, and sweet with the purity of forests…on such a fine frosty night, with no wind and the thermometer below zero, the brain works with much vivacity; and the next moment I had seen the circumstance transplanted from India and the tropics to the Adirondack wilderness and the stringent cold of the Canadian border. Here then, almost before I had begun my story, I had two countries,…it fitted at once with my design of a tale of many lands; and this decided me to consider further of its possibilities."

The above is an excerpt from Robert Louis Stevenson's notes on the Genesis of "The Master of Ballantrae" from his piece, "The Art of Writing". What many people may be aware of is that Robert Louis Stevenson was the author of Treasure Island; however, what many people may not know is that another of his works, "The Master of Ballantrae", was started during a winter stay in Saranac Lake, NY.

Grandson of a famed lighthouse engineer, Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1850. Stevenson was a gifted author who was most famous for his works Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As a child Stevenson was very prone to coughing and illness and battled with such things well into his adult life causing him to appear very frail and thin. He had an ongoing condition of upper respiratory ailments which many believed to be Tuberculosis, but that cannot be confirmed. Due to his strange, almost eccentric look early on he found it hard to fit in with his peers. However, his frequent bought with illness kept him away from school and he was taught in long stretches by private tutors.

"It was believed that he had tuberculosis, and at the time Saranac Lake was a tuberculosis cure center."

Throughout his lifetime Stevenson made many travels to help fuel his writing. Somewhere along his travels he met and eventually married (in 1880) Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne and in doing so became a father to their son Lloyd.

Due to his constant health battles, Stevenson moved frequently between 1880-87 trying to find a place suitable for his health situation. He spent summers in England and Scotland and winters in France. However, when he received the devastating news of his father's death in 1887 he decided to follow his physician's orders and pursue a complete change of climate. He, along with his family and mother, started their quest for change in Colorado before finally descending upon New York where they settled for a short time in the Adirondacks, more specifically, Saranac Lake. According to Michele Tucker, curator of the Adirondack History Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library, Stevenson came to the area because "it was believed that he had tuberculosis, and at the time Saranac Lake was a tuberculosis cure center." This however, is only one reason why he came to the area. Musician and avid RLS enthusiast, Rita Leonard, states that "he had a friend who was an artist he met in France who knew of Saranac Lake and knew that it was good for people with respiratory ailments...he also liked to get away from the maddening crowd."

While there Stevenson spent the bitterly cold winter writing "many essays that he was commissioned to write..and one poem, titled 'Winter',"Leonard says. After the winter had subsided, he set off on his yacht and sailed the Pacific for three years. He later passed away in 1894 at 44.

"People come from all over the world, the Trans-Atlantic Stevenson Conference was held here a few years ago, and the register book has very famous people in it who have visited and shown support."

The cottage (formerly Baker cottage) in which the Stevenson's stayed in Saranac Lake is still intact and has been well preserved. It is currently being maintained by third generation curator Mike Delahant as a museum and memorial to Stevenson. "This is one of the first house museums that's ever existed, they had a different idea of preservation back then, they wanted a permanent home for artifacts acquired...It's the granddaddy of all Stevenson Museums," Delahant says. He also adds, "in 1915 they first put up the commemorative plaque. The man who put it up, Gutzom Borglum, did Mount Rushmore." A group came together known as the Stevenson Memorial Committee who worked to memorialize Stevenson's name. By 1960 the original Stevenson Memorial Committee became the Stevenson Society of America who purchased the house from the Baker's.

According to the Stevenson Society of America, "you will see the largest collection of personal mementos in America, such as Stevenson's velvet smoking jacket with a sprig of heather in the breast pocket which was sent from Scotland by a member of (the society), the ice skates Stevenson wore to cut a fancy figure on nearby Moody Pond, his yachting cap, childhood photographs, a lock of his hair, original letters, and literally hundreds of articles of Stevenson lore. In the mantle piece over the fireplace are burns in the wood where Stevenson left cigarettes. The furniture in the rooms is that which he and his family used." The Stevenson Society decided to preserve this cottage so they could immortalize Stevenson's name and to educate the public about this remarkable man who called Saranac Lake home for a short time.  Overall the cottage seems to draw quite a crowd, "People come from all over the world, the Trans Atlantic Stevenson Conference was held here a few years ago, and the register book has very famous people in it who have visited and shown support" gushes Leonard. The cottage is currently open to the public on a seasonal basis and by special appointment year round.

In addition to the cottage, there is also a tea room dedicated to the memory of Stevenson.  The Robert Louis Stevenson Tea Room (which is owned and operated by Rita Leonard) is also located in Saranac Lake not too far from the cottage. The house in which it is located in holds a very significant tie to Stevenson in that Dr. Kinghorn, a friend of Stevenson and one of the founders of the Stevenson Society of America, lived there for 60 years. That being said, the RLS Tea Room would be a great place to visit for more Stevenson lore, but it is recommended that a reservation be made beforehand.

Have you been to the Robert Louis Stevenson cottage?