Elizabeth Robins, 1862-1952: Actress, Novelist, Feminist

Robins’s writing on behalf of women’s rights issues in the first quarter of the twentieth century represents an important contribution to feminist politics.

While buoyed by her early success as an actor, Elizabeth Robins began writing fiction that treated the feminist issues of her time: organized prostitution, women’s positions in war-torn England, and the dangers of rearmament. In her acting, writing, and political activism, she consistently challenged existing roles for women.

Robins published several novels under the pseudonym C. E. Raimond, culminating in the sensational male-female bildungsroman, The Open Question: A Tale of Two Temperaments, set in her native Zanesville, Ohio, the publication of which finally disclosed her identity. Robins’ work is marked by a number of true-life components and Elizabeth Robins, 1862-1952 is the first biography to use the vast collection of her private papers to demonstrate how Robins transformed her own life into literary and dramatic capital.