Robert Louis Stevenson's First Christmas in California

Robert Louis Stevenson photographed in Boston, 1887. Courtesy of 

Historic Bay Area Visionaries and the California Historical Society.

If you've ever had a blue Christmas (and even Elvis had one of those), you have some great company in the poet and writer Robert Louis Stevenson. He came to California in 1879 from Scotland on a journey of romance and, at first, it did not appear to be going well. Here's what happened over the holidays (and be sure and read it all the way through, as there is a lesson in the story). And for more on Stevenson in California, pick up a copy of my book Historic Bay Area Visionaries (History Press 2018). Merry Christmas! 

CLICK TO READ ABOUT ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON'S CALIFORNIA CHRISTMAS

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New List of Upcoming Events for Historic Bay Area Visionaries

Christmas in the Adobes uses these wooden angels as the icons of the event. They were originally created in the 1950s for the City of Monterey. 

The Robert Louis Stevenson House was one of twenty-two adobes open during Monterey's annual "Christmas in the Adobes" celebration. It is a historic house-and-building tour in a city with some of the oldest standing structures in California. What a wonderful event. Lights, mulled cider, cookies, music, costumes, and volunteer docents led the celebrations at every adobe. A wonderful way to learn history and begin the holiday season.

Upcoming Events For Historic Bay Area Visionaries

Author Robin Chapman at a book signing with author Jan Batiste Adkins at Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, California in November.

The book signings and book talks have been going well since the publication of Historic Bay Area Visionaries in October and they have been keeping me very busy. In addition to the scheduled events below I will be doing some impromptu signings at retail outlets in the region that are carrying the book. And there are quite a few. 

American Legion Post Has Helped Veterans for Eight Decades

Col. John J. Howard was a decorated war hero who retied to a house on 

Robledo Road in Los Altos. The local American Legion post is named after him.

Our local American Legion post has made the decision to seek Historic Landmark status for its building. These things are difficult in all-volunteer organizations, because now the group needs to organize both the paperwork and the fund-raising to gain the status and to help restore the structure. That is a lot of work for volunteers.

Yet the post as done so much good in its life. 

Click the link to read more about its story:  CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE COL. HOWARD AMERICAN LEGION POST

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Upcoming Events for Robin's Historic Bay Area Visionaries

Historic Bay Area Visionaries was published October 15, 2018 by The History Press.

The book is now out and for sale on The History Press web site and on Amazon.

Historic Bay Area Visionaries (History Press 2018) has now been published and we are getting lots of requests for events. I am keeping an updated list on my Author's Page on Amazon (see below for link) and I will also keep an updated list here

Wednesday, November 14: Los Altos History Museum, "Catch the Spirit," 1:30 p.m. Writer Robin Chapman will moderate a panel of local authors and the panel will be followed by a book signing. The address is: 51 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022: 650-948-9427

Thursday, November 15: The Union Presbyterian Church and the Northern California Congregational Librarians' Luncheon, 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Author talk and book signing. 858 University Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94022. Cost: $15. For reservations contact Patty Grimm at pgrimm1@pacbell.net or call Carol Campbell at 408-859-7488. 

Thomas Foon Chew: The Man Who Made A Difference

BaySide Cannery (sometimes identified as Bayside or Bay Side) was the third largest cannery in the United States in the 1920s. It was owned by Thomas Foon Chew, a Chinese immigrant to California.

Thomas Foon Chew was born in the late 1880s in China and came to San Francisco with his mother and his father in 1897. How this was possible, following the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, we don't know.

Pre-Order New Book from History Press or Amazon!

This mock-up copy of a book used to be called "the galleys" in the publishing business. 

Now it is called the "PDF version."

Even if you love to write. Even if you are good at writing and it gives you pleasure. Even if every aspect of writing is a positive experience for you. Writing is still hard work. 

So when a book is completed you have to take a little time out to say: "Hooray!"

Robert Louis Stevenson And His Journey to Monterey

There are lots of opinions about Fanny Osbourne, with whom Robert Louis Stevenson fell in love in France in 1876. But Stevenson didn't equivocate. He traveled 6,000 miles to propose marriage to her. Both images are from Historic Bay Area Visionaries, set to be published by History Press in October.

Last week I began the true tale of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson's romance with a woman from California, Fanny Osbourne, whom he met in France in 1876. It was a complicated liaison: she was eleven years older than he and had been married for twenty years to someone else. Adding to the difficulties: he lived in Scotland and she lived 6,000 miles away in California. 

Robert Louis Stevenson on a Train Through Santa Clara Valley

Robert Louis Stevenson in his favorite blue velvet jacket, which is now in the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in Monterey, along with his traveling desk, which is also in the photo. 

Photo courtesy of the California Historical Society and Historic Bay Area Visionaries.

Robert Louis Stevenson made an important visit to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1879. He was not yet the famous writer he would become and he was not on a literary errand. He was besotted with a California woman and determined to marry her. 

Upcoming Event Schedule for "Historic Bay Area Visionaries" (And a Few Other Things Too!)

My new book Historic Bay Area Visionaries will be published October 15, 2018 by the History Press.

I will continue to let people know about upcoming book events on Facebook--author talks and book signings--for the the release of Historic Bay Area Visionaries. But, you will always be able to find the full schedule here on my blog. Dates and events change from time to time, and I will keep this current.

Saturdays, September 8, 15, 22, and 29: Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard, 11:30 a.m. "Orchard Entrepreneurs" Orchard Heritage Walks with Robin Chapman for the Los Altos History Museum. Meet behind the Los Altos Library, 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, 94024. The walk will take about 30 minutes, is mostly on paved walkways, and will end at the Museum. Call the Los Altos History Museum with questions: 650-948-9427. 

Juana de la Briones: A Self-Invented California Pioneer

Most of the land owned by Juana Briones--more than 4,000 acres--became the town of Los Altos Hills. But the house she built about 1845 ended up in the city limits of Palo Alto. It was finally razed in 2011. Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association Archives.

I've recently written a new book called Historic Bay Area Visionaries, which includes the stories of six people from California history I know you will want to meet. They include an Ohlone Indian named Lope Inigo, California pioneer Juana Briones, poet Robert Louis Stevenson, heiress Sarah Winchester, immigrant millionaire Thomas Foon Chew, and silent film star Charlie Chaplin.

When Families Worked Together and Life Was Very Different

Frank White was about eleven years old when his father took this photo of him in front of the family's old car and new home--which came with an apricot orchard--on Covington Road in Los Altos. World War II had just ended and the Whites were making a new start in the Santa Clara Valley.

People will think this story is about apricots. That's because I've written a book about the agricultural history of the Santa Clara Valley and its title is California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley. The book is partly about apricots, and partly about a time worth remembering.

The Other Winchester House: Landmark Legend and Luxury

The Winchester-Merriman House is the oldest house in Los Altos, California, and was once owned by Sarah Winchester of Winchester Mystery House fame. 

Mrs. Sarah Winchester was a native of New Haven, but left New England after the death of her husband, who was the heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune. She moved to the Santa Clara Valley in California, hoping the mild, sunny climate would be good for her arthritis and gained fame for her fantastic house, now a big tourist attraction in San Jose. It has, however inaccurately, become associated with gossip about Mrs. Winchester's involvement with the occult, something that has never been confirmed by even one bit of verifiable research.

Sarah Winchester is one of six profiles in my upcoming book, Historic Bay Area Visionaries, coming this October from the History Press.

A Grower and a Tech Pioneer: A Santa Clara Valley Friendship

Modern Silicon Valley may not feel it has a lot in common with Santa Clara Valley's recent agricultural past. But many friendships blossomed in the orchards. Ask Charlie Olson of Sunnyvale's Orchard Heritage Park. He will tell you.

It wasn't very long ago that tech visionaries like Steve Jobs and David Packard were cultivating their own apricot orchards in the Santa Clara Valley. Before Jobs died, he finalized plans for the new Apple campus in Cupertino and decreed it be surrounded by fruit trees of all kinds. Packard, of Hewlett Packard fame, had his own orchard in Los Altos Hills--sixty acres of apricot trees, now cultivated by his foundation.

Finding Lost Treasures in a Family Home and Other Lessons

The home I grew up in is in Los Altos, California. My father built our first home across the street when he and my mother first moved to California. We moved into this house when I was nine. My parents lived here until their deaths, three months apart in 2009-2010.

There is a cliche that says "life is what happens to you while you are making other plans." The saying is hackneyed, but true enough, since so many of the things that play a significant role in our lives are the things we never planned for.

The Story of A Silicon Valley Landmark and its Pioneer History

Halsey House at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve is owned by the City of Los Altos and has been shuttered and unused in the middle of a public park for a decade. The people in this 1920s photo are Theodore and Emma Halsey, among the earliest residents of Los Altos.

What happens when we don't take care of our history? In the case of a local public landmark in my hometown, Halsey House, it has meant a deteriorating building in the middle of a public park, never a good thing.

Apricots in Paradise: Tracing the Roots of a Garden Legacy

It is snowy and cold in many parts of America this time of year. But March, in the San Francisco Bay Area is the time of year our many fruit trees begin to bloom.

I had not intended to spend the rest of my career, after the publication of California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley (History Press 2013), writing about apricots. It is just that people can't seem get enough information about them. I can certainly understand that.

In fact, I'm working on a new book about six exceptional people who made a difference in California history, from 1769 to 1931. I'm wrapping that manuscript up now and that book should be out this fall, again from History Press.