Belle Strong in 1944

"Louis and I have been writing, working away every morning like steam-engines on Hermiston [. . . ]. 'Belle,' he said, 'I see it all so clearly! The story unfolds itself before me to the last detail - there is nothing left in doubt. I never felt so before in anything I ever wrote. It will be my best work; I feel myself so sure in every word!'"

"She is my wife's daught, my secretary, my emanuensis, my woman-Friday on my desert island, my finder of things, my last assistance, my oasis, my staff of hope, my grove of peace, my anchor, my haven in a storm. She's Belle, I suppose"

Isobel (Belle) Osbourne (1858-1953) was RLS’s step-daughter. She was born in Indianapolis to Samuel and Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne.

Both Belle and her mother were interested in art and became art students in Paris. In 1876 Belle, her brother Samuel (Lloyd) Osbourne and Fanny went to an art colony in Grez, France, where Fanny met RLS.

Belle married the artist Joseph Strong (1853-1899) in 1879 and gave birth to a son, Austin Strong (1881-1952). In the 1880s, the Strongs lived first in San Francisco (where they helped give a memorable studio party for Oscar Wilde in the spring of 1882). and Joe Strong came up to stay with the Stevenson party in Silverado and Calistoga where he drew pictures of the miners' cabin and proved "a most good-natured comrade and a capital hand at an omelette". In 1882 they went to Hawaii. The Stevensons met up with them there when the Casco arrived in Honolulu in January 1890. Joe Strong had a drink problem was not an ideal husband; trying to help, RLS took him on the Equator cruise as photographer (July-Deccmber 1889, ending in Samoa) and sent Belle and Austin to Sydney with a small allowance. Belle later joined Stevenson at Vailima in May 1891, where she became his valued "amanuensis" or secretary. She and her brother Lloyd wrote about RLS and their experiences in Samoa in Memories of Vailima (1902).

Joe also came to Vailima in May 1891, but his irregular life caused problems. Belle finally divorced him in 1892. In 1914, she married her mother’s secretary (and possibly lover), the journalist Edward (Ned) Salisbury Field (d. 1936) just six months after Fanny died. Together, Belle and Ned took Fanny’s ashes to Mount Vaea, where RLS was buried. In the 1920s the Fields became rich after they found oil on their land. Belle wrote her memoirs in This Life I’ve Loved (1937).

Belle’s son Austin went on to become a playwright, writing successful Broadway plays such as Drums of Oude (1955) and Seventh Heaven (1922-24).

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