Elizabeth Robins

Infobox actor
name = Elizabeth Robins
bgcolour = silver


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birthdate = 1862
birthplace = Louisville, Kentucky
deathdate = 1952
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othername = C.E. Raimond
yearsactive =
spouse = George Richmond Parks (1885-1887)
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children =
parents =
residence =
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Elizabeth Robins (August 6, 1862 – May 8, 1952) was an actress, playwright, novelist, and suffragist.

Early life

Robins was the first child of Charles Robins and Hannah Crow, and was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Her mother was committed to an insane asylum when Elizabeth was a child. The children were divided up between relatives and Elizabeth was sent to live with her grandmother. Her father was a follower of Robert Owen and held progressive political views. Because of her intelligence, Elizabeth was one of her father's favorites. He wanted her to attend Vassar College and study medicine. However, she ran away to become an actress at eighteen.

Acting career

In 1885 Robins married actor George Richmond Parks. Her acting career gained momentum and she was soon in great demand. Her husband, however, struggled to get parts. On May 31st, 1887, Parks left her a note that he would stay "in her light no longer" and that he was hers until death; he then committed suicide.

In 1888 Robins relocated to London. Except for extended visits to the U.S. to visit her family, she remained in England for the rest of her life. Early in her tenure in London, she became enamoured of Ibsen's plays, starring in "Hedda Gabler," "A Doll's House" and "The Master Builder." She soon became known in Britain as "Ibsen's High Priestess." Although she remained one of Britain's most highly respected actresses, her association with Ibsen kept producers from considering her for other roles and limited her acting career.

Writing career

Approaching the age of 40, Robins realized her income from acting was not stable enough to carry her through her later years. An able writer, she turned to the pen, publishing a number of well-received novels under the pseudonym C.E. Raimond. She explained her use of a pseudonym as a means of keeping her acting and writing careers separate, but gave it up when the media reported that Robins and Raimond were one in the same. She enjoyed a long career as a fiction and nonfiction writer.

Women's rights involvement

She became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, as well as the Women's Social and Political Union, although she broke with the WPSU over its increasing use of violent militancy. She remained a strong advocate of women's rights, however, and used her gifts as a public speaker and writer on behalf of the cause.

Robins became involved in the campaign to allow women to enter the House of Lords. Her friend, Margaret Haig, was the daughter of Viscount Rhondda. He was a supporter of women's rights and in his will made arrangements for Margaret to inherit his title. This was considered radical, as women did not normally inherit peerage titles. When Rhondda died in 1918 the House of Lords refused to allow Margaret, now the Viscountess Rhondda, to take her seat. Robins wrote numerous articles on the subject, but the House of Lords refused to change its decision. In fact, it was not until 1958 that women were first admitted to the House.

Robins remained an active feminist throughout her life. In the 1920s she was a regular contributor to the feminist magazine, "Time and Tide". She also continued to write books such as "Ancilla's Share: An Indictment of Sex Antagonism", which explored the issues of sexual inequality.

She collected and edited speeches, lectures, and articles dealing with the Women’s Movement, some of which had never previously appeared in print, in "Way Stations" published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1913.

Personal life

Robins was quite beautiful and was pursued by many men. She admitted to a deep attraction to her close friend, the married critic and Ibsen scholar William Archer. However, except for her brief marriage, she remained a fiercely independent single woman. Highly intelligent, she was welcomed into the cream of London's literary and artistic circles, enjoying friendships with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Henry James, as well as a tempestuous and romantic, but probably non-physical, relationship with the poet John Masefield.

In 1900 she traveled alone to the gold rush camps of Alaska in search of her youngest brother whom she feared was lost in the Yukon. After a long and arduous journey, she located him in Nome. Her adventures in wild and lawless Alaska provided material for a number of articles she sent on to London for publication. Robins's best selling book, The Magnetic North, is an account of her experiences in Alaska.

Although she rejected her father's plans to have her educated as a doctor, she retained a strong interest in medicine. In 1909 she met Octavia Wilberforce, a young woman who longed to study medicine but was repulsed by her family, who felt intellectualism and professional careers were 'unsexing' for women. When Wilberforce's father not only refused to pay for her studies, but disinherited her for pursuing them, Robins and other friends provided financial and moral support until she became a physician. While some have conjectured that Robins and Wilberforce were romantically involved, such insinuation has never been supported by the considerable scholarly material available about both women, nor is it born out in their own copious written material. All evidence points to Robins and Wilberfoce enjoying a relationship much like that of mother and daughter. Robins was looked after by Dr Wilberforce in her declining years and they remained close until Robins's death in 1952.

References

*Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862-1952 by Angela V. John
*Elizabeth, Robins, 1862-1952, Actress, Novelist, Feminist by Joanne E. Gates
*The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900
*Octavia Wilberforce:The Autobiography of a Pioneer Woman Doctor, Edited by Pat Jalland
* [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/coll_mss/robins/ermain.htm The Papers of Elizabeth Robins] at Fales Library, New York University
* [http://www.jsu.edu/dept/english/robins/erchron.htm Chronology and Bibliography]
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