Joanne E. Gates

Drawing from many unpublished sources, especially Robins' diaries and letters housed in the Fales Collection, New York University, the public and the private Elizabeth Robins emerges as a complex women, driven by family loyalty and a drive to improve the fortunes of her father's generation. She labeled herself "I was born in the superlative" in a letter justifying her pursuit of acting as a profession. Yet when she faced disappointments, she pivoted to authorship, at first publishing anonymously and under a pseudonym.