On the occasion of her death in 1936, a New York newspaper wrote that actress Cora Urquhart Potter "probably accomplished more for the cause of feminism than the efforts of all the equal rights organizations of her day." This critical biography explores the life of the famed Victorian stage star who, abandoning her position in New York society, undertook a professional career spanning more than two decades. Potter"s defiance of convention both mirrored and propelled the changes transforming fin de siecle theatre and society. In advancing the concept of the New Woman, both on and off stage, she became a lightning rod for criticism within a social milieu and a profession still fervidly clinging to Victorian ideals.