Department
English
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
The opportunity to teach the Elizabeth Robins novel of 1913, My Little Sister, provided an opportunity to examine advocacy fiction in a more thorough way than I outlined in my 1994 biography of Robins. I detail the genesis of the novel and credit the associations Robins had with William T. Stead and John Masefield. Equally important is the way Robins' network of suffrage advocates elevated the topic of White Slavery and child abduction. I note the afterlife of the novel in attempts by Robins to get a stage version produced. Although this paper is dated to cultural references of the time of presentation--in 2003 and just as Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones had acquired long-standing best-seller status--the ongoing scholarship on Robins and her topic of child abduction continue to be relevant.
Recommended Citation
Gates, Joanne E. Revisiting the Anti White-Slavery Novel in the Age of Amber Alerts: Elizabeth Robins' "My Little Sister." Conference presentation for PCAS / ACAS, October, 2003. [http://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/fac_pres/29]
Publication/Presentation Information
Conference Presentation of 2003, now with revised and updated references.
PCAS / ACAS Conference (Popular / American Culture Association in the South). Sea Turtle Inn, Jacksonville Beach, Florida. October 2003.