h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of the highlights of the trip to California was to be the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in Saint Helena.

RLS spent some happy years in California, and in his books "The Silverado Squatters" he describes his honeymoon summer spent near Calistoga.

Because he was asthmatic, he decided that he needed to get out of the foggy atmosphere of the San Francisco Bay area, and he and his wife, Fanny, joined a party on a stagecoach up to the deserted town of Silverado. They housed in a totally ruined shack, which had been the dwelling for 30 or so hopeful silver miners up until about 20 years before. The house was on 2 levels, with one side already having crumbled away and open to the elements. They improvised a ramp to the upper door and made the best of the rusty bedsteads and kitchen range still remaining in the hostel, or whatever it was.

The town was quite far up the mountain, and they stayed there for a whole summer. Apart from their own squat, there were only a few other ruins left, and the coachhouse, where you could get a drink, change horses, and one or two people would stay overnight. The only other permanent residents were the coachhouse/innkeeper with a few staff, his wife and children.

That was in 1880 or so. Nowadays, absolutely nothing is left of the town, but there is a "Robert Louis Stevenson Park" - and this little museum.

Unfortunately, we had come from Lake Tahoe and had to be in Santa Rosa by the evening, and had spent a while driving slowly past, and admiring, the Napa Valley vineyards and the lovely houses, so we didn't have time to go to the Park, which was considerably further North.

However, we found the museum - only with the help of the satnav -there were no signposts. It was housed in a single-room building next to the village library. When we arrived the museum was open, but the library was shut for lunch.

As we had been travelling all morning, we sat on the bench outside and had a bite to eat and when the library opened we popped in to use the "facilities". Now I understand why paulh spends so much time in the library - if all American libraries are like this! It was a brand new building, or definitely very well-kept. When you went in, it was all carpeted and quiet. There were several tables with computers and a wide array of bookshelves. The shelves were not too high, and definitely not squashed close together.

To add to the cosiness, a black cat sat just inside the door to greet everyone who came in.


Then we went to the Museum. It was a lovingly curated small collection of memorabilia, including the marriage certificate of Fanny and Robert, as well as Fanny's divorce decree from her philandering first husband. There was an impressive set of silver from the Stevenson family home in Edinburgh and several artefacts from Samoa and the South Seas, where they spent much of their subsequent years and where RLS was finally buried.

We had a long chat with the staff, a man who had only just started working there, and a girl who did the office work. She had a doctorate in archiving or something like that from a University in the UK.

We learned that the various museums and other sites devoted to Stevenson are beginning to join up and so they will soon be able to swap and loan exhibits and start a mutual database and possibly even found an international society.

On asking whether there was a German translation of the Silverado Squatters, the girl introduced us to the Unesco website "translatorium", where all translations of all texts are listed. Apparently there is no German translation of that particular book. There is one in Bulgarian, but not German!

Anyway, I do recommend reading that book, whether you know the Napa Valley or not. It's not very long, and it has lovely descriptions of the skies, the landscapes, and even the fog. There is even a beautiful paragraph on the night sky which mentions Gnomon's green stars. All spiced with Stevenson's dry wit and humorous observations.

~ GS ~ . .. . . .. ...

[Amy P]

"Now I understand why paulh spends so much time in the library - if all American libraries are like this!" [TC]

The library I worked in rates a C+ from many surveys, but that's partly because the towns in the area are so competitive. People who look for houses to buy often look for first-rate municipal services like schools, libraries, recreational programs, etc. It just happened that my library was in a town that stressed recreation...