author
Fflorens Roberts
A firsthand memoir of early 20th-century rescue work, this writer tells a striking story of faith, hardship, and determination. Her book offers a rare personal view of efforts to help vulnerable women and children in California.
1 Audiobook
Fifteen Years with the Outcast
by Fflorens Roberts
About the author
Known in print as Fflorens Roberts and also identified in her book as Mrs. Florence "Mother" Roberts, she wrote Fifteen Years with the Outcast, published in 1912. The book is presented as an autobiographical account of her years in mission and rescue work.
In that memoir, she describes working to aid women and girls pushed to the margins of society, especially through rescue and refuge efforts in California. Contemporary newspaper records also mention her speaking publicly and promoting homes of refuge for women leaving prisons and penitentiaries.
Because reliable biographical sources on her are limited, many personal details about her life remain unclear. What can be confirmed is that her writing preserves an unusual and direct record of reform work, religious activism, and social conditions in the American West during the early 1900s.