From Scotland to Sāmoa: Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson in Polynesia

ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson (1829–1897) accompanied her son Robert Louis Stevenson on his voyage in the South Seas and eventually settled with him and his family in Sāmoa. Two volumes of the letters she addressed to her sister during this period were published posthumously: From Saranac to the Marquesas and beyond; […] 1887–88 (1903) and Letters from Samoa, 1891–1895 (1906). These epistolary travel accounts form part of the layered textual network created around Robert Louis Stevenson’s time in Polynesia. While reflecting the attitudes and beliefs of the Scottish woman far from home, Margaret Stevenson's accounts provide us with a more personal impression of the Pacific Islands. Like the rest of the household, Margaret Stevenson is on the whole a curious and well-intentioned participant in the cross-cultural dialogue in which she engages. Ideas of Scotland and Scottish selfhood are also discernible in her journal letters.