Betty Gladstone

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 135-mile trek through the Cévennes Mountains in 13 days. Accompanied by her 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 Cévennes," 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.