A. Mary F. Robinson

Born in England in 1857, Agnes Mary Frances Robinson contributed to cultural and literary currents from nineteenth-century Victorianism to twentieth-century modernism; she was equally at home in London and Paris and prolific in both English and French. Yet Robinson remains an enigma on many levels. This literary biography integrates Robinson’s unorthodox life with her development as a writer across genres. Best known for her poetry, Robinson was also a respected biographer, history writer, travel writer, and contributor of reviews and articles to the Times Literary Supplement for nearly forty years. She had a romantic friendship with the writer Vernon Lee and two happy – and celibate – marriages. Her salons in London and Paris were attended by major literary and artistic figures, and she counted amongst her friends Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, John Addington Symonds, Gaston Paris, Ernest Renan, and Maurice Barrès. Reflecting a decade of research in international archives and family papers, A. Mary F. Robinson reveals the extraordinary woman behind the popular writer and critically acclaimed poet.

This critical biography of A. Mary F. Robinson traces her unorthodox journey through the literary circles of London and Paris as a writer of poetry and prose, a leading member of the Anglo-French community, and a significant contributor to the cultural and literary shift from nineteenth-century Victorianism to twentieth-century modernism.

“This is the most comprehensive study to date on A. Mary F. Robinson. Patricia Rigg should be congratulated for her painstaking, thorough research, which gathers previously unavailable archival material. Rigg gives attention to Robinson’s complete oeuvre in both English and French, offering much new material on her work in French especially, for a richer sense of Robinson’s full career.” Emily Harrington, University of Colorado, Boulder, and author of Second Person Singular: Late Victorian Women Poets and the Bonds of Verse

“This book offers an organic approach to A. Mary F. Robinson, which is a major achievement in itself, given the considerable complexities of her life and work. Patricia Rigg’s capacious and fascinating account will place Robinson prominently in late Victorian and early twentieth-century literary studies.” Alison Chapman, University of Victoria and author of Networking the Nation: British and American Women’s Poetry and Italy, 1840–1870

Patricia Rigg is professor of English at Acadia University.