[2] When Hannah Crow was committed to an insane asylum, Elizabeth and the other children were sent to live with her grandmother in Zanesville, Ohio, where she was educated.

It would be her grandmother who armed her with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and her unconditional support on her endeavor to act in New York City.

Though her father was an insurance broker, he traveled a lot during her childhood and in the summer of 1880, Robins accompanied him to mining camps and was able to attend theatre in New York and Washington along the way.

After arriving in New York, Robins soon met James O'Neill, who helped her join Edwin Booth's theatre and by 1882, she was touring.

She soon grew bored and irritated playing "wretched, small character parts" and in 1883 joined the Boston Museum stock company.

Finding work in "'women's plays' written by men like Ibsen," Robins and Lea brought strong female characters to the stage.

"[4] Together Elizabeth Robins and Marion Lea brought Ibsen's Hedda Gabler to the stage for the first time ever in England.

"The experience of acting and producing Ibsen's plays and the reactions to her work helped transform Elizabeth over time into a committed supporter of women's rights.

Ending her acting career at the age of forty, Robins had made her mark on the English stage as not only an actress but an actress-manager.

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 the same.

She and Florence Bell anonymously wrote the play Alan's Wife based on the short story Befried by the Swedish author Elin Améen.

When the 1911 census was taken, Robins evaded enumeration and instead wrote on her form: "the occupier of this house will be ready to give the desired information the moment the Government recognises women as responsible citizens".

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 (Way Stations, published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1913).

She admitted to a deep attraction to her close friend, the highly respected literary critic and fellow Ibsen scholar, William Archer.

Highly intelligent, she was welcomed into London's literary and artistic circles, enjoying friendships with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Henry James, as well as a tempestuous romantic (but probably non-physical) relationship with the much younger future poet laureate John Masefield.

Octavia was a young woman whose desire to study medicine was thwarted by a family which viewed intellectualism and professional careers as 'unsexing' for women.

When Wilberforce's father refused to pay for her studies and disinherited her for pursuing them, Robins and other friends provided financial and moral support until she became a doctor.