Series V: Florence Bell

Series V contains materials relating to Florence Eveleen Eleanor (Olliffe) Bell (1851 - 1930), a playwright and author, who met Elizabeth Robins around 1891 while Robins was active in the British theater. Bell and Robins formed a close friendship which remained strong and constant until Bell's death in 1930. In her will, Florence Bell stipulated that all of Elizabeth Robins's letters should be returned to her.

The letters sent by Robins to Bell comprise the majority of this series and are personal in nature. The correspondence concerns domestic problems; news of friends; the illnesses which Robins suffered throughout her life; her travels in Europe and North America, including her journey to Alaska in 1900 which inspired the novel The Magnetic North (1904), and her frequent visits to her brother Raymond at his home, Chinsegut, in Florida; family members; Robins's relationships with David Scott, Octavia Wilberforce and Marjorie Hubert, all of whom lived at her Sussex County home, Backsettown. The personal quality of this correspondence offers a special insight into Robins's development throughout her middle years. Noticeably absent from the correspondence is commentary on Robins's involvement in the suffrage movement.