Brief Biography

Actor and writer Mary Robinson was raised, along with four other children, by her mother alone after her father left in the early 1760s. Robinson gained a decent education from her mother, who at one point opened a school for young girls, although it was shut down by Robinson's father on one of his rare and brief visits. Robinson wrote her first poems while living with her husband and daughter in prison. After his release, Robinson returned to the stage and gained notoriety for her role as Perdita in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. It was during this period that she met and had an affair with the Prince of Wales. Later in life she became best known for her poems and novels, and she supported the radical beliefs of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Literary Works by Robinson (A Celebration of Women Writers)

Additional Biographical Information (A Celebration of Women Writers)

Relevant Bibliography Entries

• Shaffer, Julie. "Ruined Women and Illegitimate Daughters: Revolution and Female Sexuality". In Lewd and Notorious: Female Transgression in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Katharine Kittredge. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2003. 283-310.