What’s a “Fellow Farer True”? A Literary Explanation

With everything going on in the world right now, I just don’t have it in me to post about travel destinations. It seems depressing to write about fun places that no one should be visiting anyway. Instead, I thought I’d answer a question you might have about my blog. Ever wondered why it’s called Fellow Farer True? For the answer, let me first give you some background about 19th-century writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The phrase “fellow farer true” is from a Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem called “My Wife,” which appeared in a collection of Stevenson’s poems titled Songs of Travel and Other Verses. You probably know Stevenson as the author of adventure and horror books like Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But Stevenson is also considered the father of modern travel writing. He traveled extensively throughout his life and wrote numerous essays and books about his travel experiences.

Childhood and Education

Born in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from chronic respiratory issues and spent much of his childhood confined to bed where he passed the time reading. Although Stevenson aspired to be a writer, his father hoped he would become a civil engineer and join the family business, a lighthouse manufacturing company. As a compromise, Stevenson went to law school at the University of Edinburgh. He passed his bar exams and was admitted to the Scottish bar, but gave up the practice of law almost immediately after starting it.

Travel Writing

During his summers in law school and after graduation, Robert Louis Stevenson traveled to France. His first published volumes, An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), described his experiences canoeing the Oise River from Amsterdam to Pontoise and hiking across southern-central France with his donkey, Modestine.

While in the town of Grez-Sur-Loing just outside of Paris, he met the woman who would later become his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. Fanny had separated from her first husband after his repeated unfaithfulness, and she made the long trip from San Francisco to France on her own to raise her children and study art.

Marriage and Family Life

Robert Louis Stevenson fell deeply in love with Fanny, but Fanny was not quite ready to give up on her marriage. Two years after the couple met, she abruptly left for California to reconcile with her husband. Within a year, she wrote to Stevenson that she was getting divorced. Stevenson sailed from Glasgow to New York and then traveled by train to San Francisco to be with her, and they married in 1880.

At that point, their life together began in earnest. They returned to England and summered in the south of France, then spent another year in America, before sailing the South Seas and settling on the island of Samoa. There, they lived on a 300-acre estate where Stevenson could write in a climate that benefited his continued ill health.

Fanny Stevenson

Fanny was an intelligent and independent woman who is said to have been fiercely protective of Stevenson while also being one of his toughest critics. She was also an author in her own right, publishing magazine articles and short stories. The couple’s letters indicate they collaborated on some of Stevenson’s later works, with Fanny developing ideas and acting as editor. Fanny also kept her own journals, and her account of the family’s travels in the Pacific islands was published posthumously in 1914 as The Cruise of the Janet Nicol.

Stevenson’s Fellow Farer True

The true extent of the Stevensons’ literary partnership is unknown, but we do know how Robert Louis Stevenson felt about his wife from his poetry:

“Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,

With eyes of gold and bramble-dew,

Steel-true and blade-straight,

The great artificer

Made my mate.

Honour, anger, valour, fire;

A love that life could never tire,

Death quench or evil stir,

The mighty master

Gave to her.

Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,

A fellow-farer true through life,

Heart-whole and soul-free

The august father

Gave to me.”

Why “Fellow Farer True”?

When I was looking for a blog name, I searched my books for inspiration and came across “My Wife.” It spoke to me for so many reasons. The poem acknowledges all the things I am to my family and they are to me—teacher, caretaker, partner, and companion. But it also describes what a community of people—whether friends, neighbors, colleagues, or like-minded individuals—can be to each other. A farer is a traveler, and a fellow farer is someone you travel with, and I knew my blog would be about my journeys, both real and symbolic. I experience journeys everyday with my family, who I’m so grateful to travel through life with. But I’m also grateful I can share those journeys with you through this blog.

My travels have taken me to some of the significant locations in Robert Louis Stevenson’s life. Click on these links to read my posts on Paris, the south of France, San Francisco and Monterey, and the Hawaiian Islands.

Further Reading

Glennen, Callum. “Robert Louis Stevenson: The Father of Modern Travel Writing.” Business Destinations. August 30, 2017. https://www.businessdestinations.com/bd-portrait/robert-louis-stevenson-the-father-of-modern-travel-writing/

Pritzker, Robin. “The Strange Case of Fanny Stevenson and Literary Partnership.” Inciting Sparks (blog). March 21, 2016. https://incitingsparks.org/2016/03/21/the-strange-case-of-fanny-stevenson-and-literary-partnership/

“Robert Louis Stevenson’s Family,” The RLS Website, accessed March 24, 2020. http://robert-louis-stevenson.org/family/

Sutherland, Kate. “The Very Brief Legal Career of Robert Louis Stevenson.” Law. Arts. Culture. (blog). March 23, 2011. https://lawartscult.osgoode.yorku.ca/2011/03/the-very-brief-legal-career-of-robert-louis-stevenson/.