Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862-1952

306 Pages·1995·1.61 MB·English

by  Angela V. John

ELIZABETH ROBINS: STAGING A
LIFE
Elizabeth Robins as Britain’s first Hilda Wangel in The Master Builder (1893)
(The Fales Library, New York University)
ELIZABETH ROBINS:
STAGING A LIFE
1862–1952

Angela V.John

London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

© 1995 Angela V.John
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
John, Angela V.
Elizabeth Robins: staging a life, 1862–1952/Angela V.John.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. Robins, Elizabeth, 1962–1952—Biography. 2. Women novelists,
American—19th century—Biography. 3. Actors and actresses—United
States—Biography. 4. Actors and actresses—England—Biography.
5. Feminists—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PS2719.R4Z73 1995
813’.4–dc20 94–21064
[B]

ISBN 0-203-41319-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-72143-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-06112-1 (Print Edition)
For she had a great variety of selves to call upon, far more than we have
been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if
it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well
have as many thousand.
(From Virginia Woolf, Orlando, A Biography, London, Hogarth Press,
1928)

To posterity the biography is indeed the life.
(Elizabeth Robins, Ancilla’s Share, London, Hutchinson, 1924)

FOR LLOYD
who had the idea…

CONTENTS

List of illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xii
INTRODUCTION 1
Part I Bessie Robins
1 WHITHER & HOW? 15
2 THE OPEN QUESTION 30
Part II Lisa of the blue eyes
3 IBSEN & THE ACTRESS 49
4 THEATRE AND FRIENDSHIP 75
Part III C.E.Raimond and I
5 COME AND FIND ME 101
6 THE MAGNETIC NORTH 121
Part IV Elizabeth Robins
7 THE CONVERT 141
8 WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO…? 173
Part V From E.R. to Anonymous
9 ANCILLA’S SHARE 195
10 TIME IS WHISPERING 215
ix