Frederick William Robinson

Frederick William Robinson (23 December 1830 – 6 December 1901) was an English novelist, magazine editor and drama critic.

Life Robinson was born in Spitalfields in 1830, the second son of William Robinson of Lane, Brixton, who owned much house property in London. His mother's surname was St John. After his education he acted for some time as his father's secretary, but he soon embarked upon a literary career, his first novel The House of Elmore, begun before he was eighteen, being published in 1855. It met with success and was followed by upwards of fifty other works of fiction. Grandmother's Money (1860) secured a wide vogue, which was maintained in an anonymous series of semi-religious novels: High Church (1860); No Church (1861); Church and Chapel (1863); Carry's Confession (1865); Beyond the Church (1866), and Christie's Faith (1867).

He was equally successful with two works of a different character: Female Life in Prison, by a Prison Matron (1862) and Memoirs of Jane Cameron, Female Convict (1863). These sketches and stories, based upon actual records, were so realistic in treatment as to be mistaken for literal history. Donations for prisoners reached Robinson, and his revelations led to improvement in the conditions of prison life. Robinson was also a pioneer in novels of low life, which included Owen, a Waif (1862), Mattie, a Stray (1864), and Milly's Hero (1865).