The Autobiography of a “Newspaper Girl”, by Elizabeth L. Banks (1865 – 1938)

Elizabeth Banks was an American journalist and author. She grew up in Wisconsin, then lived in England the last forty years of her life. She became a regular contributor to English publications such as The Daily News, Punch, St James’ Gazette, and London Illustrated. She created a sensation by recording her observations on the plight of the lower classes, which she researched posing as a housemaid, street sweeper, and Covent Garden flower girl. Her later journalistic writings promoted women’s right to vote and denounced prison conditions for jailed suffragettes. This memoir was written about 10 years into her career, when she was better known but was not financially secure. Her public-facing accounts of her “undercover” work are related in Campaigns of Curiosity – Summary by TriciaG and Wikipedia