Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey: Zigging and Zagging Through the Cevennes

Most Mothers in 1963 didn't set out on a journey with their daughters through an impoverished section of France with little knowledge of the language. But Betty Gladstone did and ended up being the toast of Le Monastier, France, where she is remembered to this day. Fascinated by Robert Louis Stevenson from her childhood, Betty recreated Stevenson's one hundred thirty-five mile trek through the Cevennes Mountains in thirteen days. Accompanied by her two daughters and Modestine, a donkey named after Stevenson's beast of burden, they walked the author's original path and slept in barns and in small hotels with questionable facilities. Betty Gladstone's memoir, "Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey: Zigging and Zagging Through the Cevennes," is the tale of her improbable journey and the lifelong friends she made on the way. In an afterword, her younger daughter, who edited the book, chronicles the heart-warming aftermath in which Betty erected a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson in Le Monastier with a town-wide celebration that achieved international press coverage.

Author: Betty Gladstone
Publisher: Gettier Group LLC
Published: 12/14/2017
Pages: 146
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.31d
ISBN: 9780986088285

About the Author
Betty Gladstone was born in 1919 in New York City. She earned a B.A. degree in psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She and her first husband settled in Berkeley after graduation. While raising Roberta (born 1945) and Carol (born 1951), she administered health plan memberships for Kaiser and was active in the League of Women Voters. After 1965 she lived in France, then England, where she helped run a housing trust that rehabilitated old houses to create homes for low-income families. In 1979 she and her second husband returned to the United States for retirement in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She became an avid supporter of the Santa Fe Opera company, conducting back stage tours and soliciting local merchants for donations to fundraisers. Despite her lack of experience in retail, she was instrumental in opening a gift shop in the Opera complex to benefit the company. She died in Santa Fe in 1990.

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