Elizabeth Robins
Elizabeth Robins was an influential American actress, playwright, and novelist born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1862. She grew up in a large family that faced significant hardships, including the mental health struggles of her mother, which led her to live with her grandparents. Initially pursuing a career in medicine at Vassar College, Robins shifted to acting, adopting the stage name Claire Raymond, and made a mark in theater, particularly with plays by Henrik Ibsen, such as *A Doll's House* and *Hedda Gabler*.
In addition to her acting career, Robins was a prolific writer, creating works that often addressed pressing social issues, including women's rights, suffrage, and exploitation. Her most notable play, *Votes for Women!*, reflects her engagement with the suffragette movement. Robins was also involved in various feminist organizations and edited the publication *Time and Tide*.
Later in life, she focused on healthcare issues for women and was instrumental in campaigning for a women's hospital in Brighton, England, after World War I. Robins returned to the U.S. during World War II and wrote her autobiography before passing away in 1952. Her contributions to literature and theater, as well as her advocacy for women's rights, continue to resonate today.
Subject Terms
Elizabeth Robins
American novelist, playwright, short fiction writer, actor and suffragette.
- Born: August 6, 1862
- Birthplace: Louisville, Kentucky
- Died: May 8, 1952
- Place of death: Brighton, England
Biography
Elizabeth Robins was the eldest of eight children born to Charles Ephraim Robins and his wife and cousin Hannah Maria (Crow), a former opera singer. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but the family soon moved to Staten Island, New York. A number of childhood deaths took place in the family. After the birth of her youngest brother, Benjamin, her mother’s mental health declined. When Robins’s parents separated and her mother was committed to an institution, she then went to live with her paternal grandparents in Zanesville, Ohio. Here she was educated at Putnam Seminary for Young Ladies, where she had her first experience of acting. She was then sent to Vassar College, with the intention of her becoming a doctor, but after a year there, she abandoned her studies and left for the New York stage, taking the name Claire Raymond.
She worked for a while with the Boston Museum Company, where she met George Richmond Parks, a fellow actor. They married in 1885, but within two years he committed suicide. Robins embarked on a coast-to-coast tour, then on to Norway, where the dramatist Heinrich Ibsen was becoming famous. The little theater company passed through London on their return, and this is where Robins stayed, entranced by the London stage.
The admiration was mutual, especially when she began acting in Ibsen plays. The first one of these was an 1891 production of A Doll’s House, where she played the young widow Mrs. Linden. Success followed with her playing Hedda Gabler in the play of the same name, and then Hilda Wangel in the 1893 production of The Master Builder. She worked first with a fellow American actress, Marion Lea, then with William Archer, Ibsen’s translator and her lover.
Robins began writing her own plays, the most famous of which was Votes for Women! (1907), an early suffragette drama. At the same time, the material also was put into fictional form, as the novel The Convert. She had been writing short stories since the 1880s as a way of earning money, and was encouraged to try novel writing. She wrote under the pen name of C. E. Raimond. Her first novel was George Mandeville’s Husband, published in 1894. Her first real success was The Open Question (1898). In all, she wrote fourteen novels and two collections of short stories, often tackling controversial subjects to do with women, such as prostitution, suffrage, and suicide. My Little Sister (1913), for example, was about white slavery.
Robins's exposure to Ibsen’s drama and her own experience at being exploited as an actress by male theater producers had turned her towards political feminism, and she became involved in a number of campaigning groups, particularly the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the Actresses’ Franchise League, and the Women Writers’ League. In the end, she parted company with the WSPU for being too militant, but continued to edit the feminist periodical Time and Tide in the 1920s, and in 1924 produced her most important polemical writing, Ancilla’s Share: An Indictment of Sex Antagonism.
Robins left the United Kingdom briefly to journey to Alaska to find two long-lost brothers, an adventure recorded in The Magnetic North (1904) and continued in Come and Find Me (1908). On her return, she decided to retire from acting and purchased a farmhouse in the Sussex countryside, using it for suffragette healthcare purposes. She also became interested in wider aspects of healthcare for women, and after World War I she helped campaign for a women’s hospital in Brighton, Sussex. She returned to the United States during World War II, writing her biography there in 1940. After the war she returned to England, dying at Brighton in 1952.
Author Works
Drama:
Alan's Wife, 1893 (originally published anonymously, later credited to Robins and Florence Bell)
Votes for Women, pr. 1907; pb. 1909
Long Fiction:
George Mandeville's Husband, 1894 (as C. E. Raimond)
The New Moon, 1895 (as C. E. Raimond)
Below the Salt, 1896 (as C. E. Raimond)
The Open Question, 1898 (as C. E. Raimond)
The Magnetic North, 1904
A Dark Lantern, 1905
The Convert, 1907
Under the Southern Cross, 1907
Come and Find Me, 1908
The Mills of the Gods, 1908
The Florentine Frame, 1909
My Little Sister, 1913 (also known as Where Are You Going To?)
Camilla, 1918
The Messenger, 1919
Time is Whispering, 1923
Ancilla's Share: An Indictment of Sex Antagonism, 1924
The Secret That Was Kept, 1926
Both Sides of the Curtain, 1940
Short Fiction:
The Fatal Gift of Beauty and Other Stories, 1896
The Mills of the Gods and Other Stories, 1920
Nonfiction:
The Alaska Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900
Way Stations, 1913
Raymond and I, 1956
Bibliography
Gates, Joanne E. Elizabeth Robins, 1862–1952: Actress, Novelist, Feminist. U of Alabama P, 1994. A key in-depth biography of Robins.
John, Angela V. Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862–1952. Routledge, 1995. One of the chief full-length biographies of Robins.
Simkin, John. "Elizabeth Robins." Spartacus Educational, Aug. 2014, spartacus-educational.com/Wrobins.htm. Accessed 21 June 2017. Provides a biographical overview of Robins and discussion of her major works, along with quotes from primary sources.
Waage, Fred. "Diva on Ice: Elizabeth Robins Writes the Alaska Environment, 1900." Journal of the West, vol. 50, no. 1, 2011, pp. 91–97. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=67742100&site=eds-live. Accessed 21 June 2017. Analyzes Robins's Alaskan novels, including consideration of their environmental themes and comparison to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Weber, Brenda R. "Channeling Charlotte: Woman's Secret and Great Powers in Elizabeth Robins' White Violets." Women's Writing, vol. 18, no. 4, Nov. 2011, pp. 486–504. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2012581354&site=eds-live. Accessed 21 June 2017. Discusses Robins's unpublished novel White Violets, focusing on the feminist elements of the work and the influence of Charlotte Brontë.