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= Susan_Glaspell =
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Introduction
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Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 - July 28, 1948) was an American
playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George
Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern
American theatre company.
First known for her short stories (fifty were published), Glaspell
also wrote nine novels, fifteen plays, and a biography. Often set in
her native Midwest, these semi-autobiographical tales typically
explore contemporary social issues, such as gender, ethics, and
dissent, while featuring deep, sympathetic characters who make
principled stands. Her 1930 play 'Alison's House' earned her the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
After her husband's death in Greece, she returned to the United
States. During the Great Depression, Glaspell worked in Chicago for
the Works Progress Administration, where she was Midwest Bureau
Director of the Federal Theater Project. Although a best-selling
author in her own time, after her death Glaspell attracted less
interest and her books went out of print. She was also noted for
discovering playwright Eugene O'Neill.
Since the late 20th century, critical reassessment of women's
contributions has led to renewed interest in her career and a revival
of her reputation. In the early 21st century, Glaspell is today
recognized as a pioneering feminist writer and America's first
important modern female playwright. Her one-act play 'Trifles' (1916)
is frequently cited as one of the greatest works of American theatre.
According to Britain's leading theatre critic, Michael Billington, she
remains "American drama's best-kept secret."
Early life and career
=======================
Susan Glaspell was born in Iowa in 1876 to Elmer Glaspell, a hay
farmer, and his wife Alice Keating, a public school teacher. She had
an older brother, Raymond, and a younger brother, Frank. She was
raised on a rural homestead just below the bluffs of the Mississippi
River along the western edge of Davenport, Iowa. This property had
been bought by her paternal great-grandfather James Glaspell from the
federal government following its Black Hawk Purchase. Having a fairly
conservative upbringing, "Susie" was remembered as "a precocious
child" who would often rescue stray animals. As the family farm
increasingly became surrounded by residential development, Glaspell's
worldview was still shaped by the pioneer tales of her grandmother.
She told of regular visits by Indians to the farm in the years before
Iowa statehood. Growing up directly across the river from Black Hawk's
ancestral village, Glaspell was also influenced by the Sauk leader's
autobiography; he wrote that Americans should be worthy inheritors of
the land. In 1891, her father sold the farm, and the family moved into
Davenport.
Glaspell was an accomplished student in the city's public schools,
taking an advanced course of study and giving a commencement speech at
her 1894 graduation. By eighteen, she was earning a regular salary as
a journalist for a local newspaper. By twenty, she wrote a weekly
'Society' column that lampooned Davenport's upper class.
At twenty-one, Glaspell enrolled at Drake University, against the
local belief that college made women unfit for marriage. A philosophy
major, she excelled in male-dominated debate competitions, winning the
right to represent Drake at the state debate tournament her senior
year. A 'Des Moines Daily News' article on her graduation ceremony
cited Glaspell as "a leader in the social and intellectual life of the
university."
The day after graduation, Glaspell began working full-time for the Des
Moines paper as a reporter, a rare position for a woman, particularly
as she was assigned to cover the state legislature and murder cases.
After covering the conviction of a woman accused of murdering her
abusive husband, Glaspell abruptly resigned at age twenty-four.
She moved back to Davenport to focus on writing fiction. Unlike many
new writers, she readily had her stories accepted and was published by
the most widely read periodicals, including 'Harper's', 'Munsey's',
'Ladies' Home Journal', and 'Woman's Home Companion'. It was a golden
age of short stories. She used a large cash prize from a short story
magazine to finance her move to Chicago, where she wrote her first
novel, 'The Glory of the Conquered', published in 1909. It was a
best-seller, and 'The New York Times' declared, "Unless Susan
Glaspell is an assumed name covering that of some already well-known
author--and the book has qualities so out of the ordinary in American
fiction and so individual that this does not seem likely--'The Glory
of the Conquered' brings forward a new author of fine and notable
gifts."
Glaspell published her second novel, 'The Visioning', in 1911. 'The
New York Times' said of the book, "it does prove Miss Glaspell's
staying power, her possession of abilities that put her high among the
ranks of American storytellers." Her third novel, 'Fidelity', was
published in 1915. 'The New York Times' described it as "a big and
real contribution to American novels."
Theatre
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While in Davenport, Glaspell associated with other local writers to
form the Davenport group. Among them was George Cram Cook, who was
teaching English literature at the University of Iowa. He was from a
wealthy family and also was a gentleman farmer. Though he was already
in his second, troubled marriage, Glaspell fell in love with him. He
divorced and they wed in 1913.
To escape Davenport's disapproving gossip and seek a larger artistic
world, Glaspell and Cook moved to New York City's Greenwich Village.
There they became key participants in America's first avant-garde
artistic movement, and associated with many of the era's most
well-known social reformers and activists, including Upton Sinclair,
Emma Goldman, and John Reed. Glaspell became a leading member of
Heterodoxy, an early feminist debating group composed of the premier
women's rights crusaders. After a series of miscarriages, she
underwent surgery to remove a fibroid tumor.
Along with many others of their artistic circles, Glaspell and Cook
went to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, for the summer of
1915, where they rented a cottage. Although still weak from surgery,
Glaspell worked with Cook and friends to start an experimental theatre
company, a "creative collective". They produced their first plays in a
refurbished fishing wharf arranged for by another member of their
group. What became known as the Provincetown Playhouse would be
devoted to creating and producing artistic plays to reflect
contemporary American issues. The Players rejected the more commercial
and escapist melodramas produced on Broadway.
Despite the successes of her earlier fiction, Glaspell would be most
remembered for the twelve groundbreaking plays she submitted to the
company over the next seven years. Her first play, 'Trifles' (1916),
was based on the murder trial she had covered as a young reporter in
Des Moines. Today considered an early feminist masterpiece, it was an
instant success, riveting audiences with its daring views of justice
and morality. It has since become one of the most anthologized works
in American theatre history. In 1921 she completed 'Inheritors';
following three generations of a pioneer family, it is perhaps
America's first modern historical drama. This same year she also
finished 'The Verge', one of the earliest American works of
expressionist art.
Believing an amateur staff would lead to increased innovation, the
Provincetown playwrights often participated directly in the production
of their own plays. Though untrained, Glaspell received further
acclaim as an actress. William Zorach, an early member of the group,
reported "she had only to be on the stage and the play and the
audience came alive." Jacques Copeau, a legendary French theatre
director and critic, was moved to tears by a Glaspell performance. He
described her as "a truly great actress."
While considering new plays to produce, Glaspell discovered Eugene
O'Neill, who would eventually be recognized as one of the greatest
playwrights in American history. Other notables associated with the
group include Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theodore Dreiser, and Floyd
Dell, Glaspell's friend from the Davenport group.
After their first two seasons in Provincetown, the players moved their
theater to New York City. As the company became more successful,
playwrights began to view it as a means to get picked up by other,
more commercial theatre venues, a violation of the group's original
purpose.
Cook and Glaspell decided to leave the company they founded, which had
become 'too successful'. Glaspell was by now at the height of her
theatre career, with her most recent play, 'The Verge', bringing the
most praise. In 1922 Glaspell and Cook moved to Delphi, Greece. Cook
died there in 1924 of glanders, an infectious disease he caught from
his dog.
From the onset, Glaspell's plays were also published in print form,
receiving laudatory reviews by New York's most prestigious
periodicals. By 1918 Glaspell was already considered one of America's
most significant new playwrights. In 1920, her plays began to be
printed in England by the highly reputable British publisher, Small
& Maynard. She was even better received there. English critics
hailed her as a genius and ranked her above O'Neill. They compared her
favorably to Henrik Ibsen, whom they ranked as the most important
playwright since Shakespeare. To satisfy demand for Glaspell's
writing, a British version of her novel 'Fidelity' was published,
going through five editions in five weeks. When 'Inheritors' was
produced for England in 1925, every leading newspaper and literary
magazine published an extensive review, most unanimous in their
praise. The reviewer for the 'Liverpool Echo' claimed, "This play will
live when Liverpool is a rubbish heap."
However, the influence and critical success of Glaspell's plays did
not translate into financial gain. In order to support herself and her
husband during their years with the theater, Glaspell continued to
submit short stories to top periodicals for publication. Literary
scholars consider the stories from this period to be her finest. It
was during her productive time as a playwright that Glaspell also
established herself as, in the words of biographer Linda Ben-Zvi, "a
central figure in the development of the modern American short story."
Later career
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Glaspell returned to Cape Cod after Cook's death, where she wrote a
well-received biography and tribute to her late husband, 'The Road to
the Temple' (1927). During the late twenties, she was romantically
involved with the younger writer Norman H. Matson. In this period she
wrote three best-selling novels, which she considered personal
favorites: 'Brook Evans' (1928), 'Fugitive's Return' (1929), and
'Ambrose Holt and Family' (1931). She also wrote the play 'Alison's
House' (1930), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1931.
In 1932, Glaspell's relationship with Matson ended after eight years.
She fell into her first and only period of low productivity as she
struggled with depression, alcoholism, and poor health.
In 1936, Glaspell moved to Chicago after being appointed Midwest
Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project during the Great
Depression. Over the next few years, she reconnected with siblings and
regained control of her drinking and creativity. Glaspell returned to
Cape Cod when her work for the Federal Theater Project was finished.
Her years in the Midwest influenced her work. Her last three novels
increasingly focused on the region, family life, and theistic
questions. They included 'The Morning is Near Us' (1939), 'Norma Ashe'
(1942), and 'Judd Rankin's Daughter' (1945).
Susan Glaspell died of viral pneumonia in Provincetown on July 28,
1948.
Legacy
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Glaspell was highly regarded in her time, and was well known as a
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Her short stories were regularly
printed in the era's top periodicals, and her 'New York Times'
obituary states that she was "one of the nation's most widely-read
novelists."
In 1940, a new generation of influential Broadway-based critics began
publishing derogatory reviews of her plays, having a sizable effect on
her long-term standing. Exacerbating the issue was Glaspell's
reluctance to seek publicity and her tendency to downplay her own
accomplishments, perhaps a result of her modest Midwestern upbringing.
In addition, Glaspell's idealistic novels of strong and independent
female protagonists were less popular in the post-war era, which
stressed female domesticity. Her novels fell out of print after her
death. Accordingly, in the United States her work was seriously
neglected for many years. Internationally, she received some attention
by scholars, who were primarily interested in her more experimental
work from the Provincetown years.
In the late 1970s, feminist critics began to reevaluate Glaspell's
career, and interest in her work has grown steadily ever since. In the
early 21st century, Glaspell scholarship is a "burgeoning" field.
Several book-length biographies and analyses of her writing have been
published by university presses since the late 20th century. After
nearly a century of being out of print, a large portion of her work
has been republished.
With major achievements in drama, novel, and short fiction, Glaspell
is often cited as a "prime example" of an overlooked female writer
deserving canonization. Perhaps the originator of modern American
theater, Glaspell has been called "the First Lady of American Drama"
and "the Mother of American Drama."
In 2003, the International Susan Glaspell Society was founded, with
the aim of promoting "the recognition of Susan Glaspell as a major
American dramatist and fiction writer." Her plays are frequently
performed by college and university theatre departments, but she has
become more widely known for her often-anthologized works: the one-act
play 'Trifles', and its short-story adaptation, "A Jury of Her Peers".
Since the late 20th century, these two pieces have become staples of
theatre and Women's Studies curricula across the United States and the
world.
Recent productions
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In 1996, the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London, began a long
association with the plays of Susan Glaspell. Auriol Smith directed
'The Verge' in 1996, one of the first of many plays by the American
playwright to be performed at the theatre. The Mint Theater in New
York City produced 'Alison's House' in 1999 under the direction of
Linda Ames Key.
The Metropolitan Playhouse, a New York resident theater dedicated to
exploring and re-vitalizing American literature and culture, staged
'Inheritors' in 2005; the production was directed by Yvonne Opffer
Conybeare.
In his 2008 programmed note for 'Inheritors', Orange Tree director Sam
Walters wrote: In 1996... I felt we had rediscovered a really
important writer. Now, whenever I talk to American students, which I
do quite often, I try my 'Glaspell test'. I simply ask them if they
have heard of her, and almost always none of them have. Then I mention
'Trifles', and some realize they have heard of that much-anthologized
short play. So even in her own country she is shamefully neglected.
And when I type Glaspell on my computer it always wants to change it
to Gaskell.
The Ontological Hysteric Incubator Arts project put on two plays by
Glaspell, 'The Verge' in 2009, directed by Alice Reagan; and 'Trifles'
in 2010, directed by Brooke O'Harra and Brendan Connelly. As of 2013
the theater has produced three of Glaspell's one-act plays and five of
her full-length plays, including the first ever production of
Glaspell's unpublished final play, 'Springs Eternal'.
In September 2015, celebrating the centenary of Provincetown Players,
American Bard Theater Company presented a 12-hour celebration,
featuring performances of 10 of Glaspell's plays in a single day.
The San Diego State University School of Theatre, Television, and Film
staged two one-act plays by Susan Glaspell in September and October
2018, 'Trifles' (1916) and 'Woman's Honor' (1918) in a production
directed by faculty member Randy Reinholz.
Drama
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One-act plays
*'Suppressed Desires' (1914), co-written with George Cram Cook
*'Trifles' (1916), adapted as the short story "A Jury of Her Peers"
(1917)
*'Close the Book' (1917)
*'The Outside' (1917)
*'The People' (1917)
*'Woman's Honor' (1918)
*'Tickless Time' (1918), co-written with George Cram Cook
*'Free Laughter' (1919), published for the first time in 2010
Full-length plays
*'Bernice' (1919)
*'Inheritors' (1921)
*'The Verge' (1921)
*'Chains of Dew' (1922), published for the first time in 2010
*'The Comic Artist' (1927), co-written with Norman Matson
*'Alison's House' (1930), winner of 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
*'Springs Eternal' (1943), published for the first time in 2010
Fiction
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Novels
*'The Glory of the Conquered' (1909)
*'The Visioning' (1911)
*'Fidelity' (1915)
*'Brook Evans' (1928)
*'Fugitive's Return' (1929)
*'Ambrose Holt and Family' (1931)
*'The Morning Is Near Us' (1939)
*'Norma Ashe' (1942)
*'Judd Rankin's Daughter' (1945)
Short story collections
*'Lifted Masks' (1912)
*'A Jury of Her Peers' (1917)
*'Her America: "A Jury of Her Peers" and Other Stories by Susan
Glaspell' (2010), edited by Patricia L. Bryan & Martha C.
Carpentier
*'The Rules of the Institution and Other Stories' (2018)
Other
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*'The Road to the Temple' (1926), a biography of George Cram Cook
*'Cherished and Shared of Old' (1926), a children's book
Further reading
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Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Critical articles
* Radavich, David. "The Heartland of Susan Glaspell's Plays,"
'MidAmerica' XXXVII (2010): 81-94.
External links
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* [
http://academic.shu.edu/glaspell/ The International Susan Glaspell
Society]
*
[
http://theater.nytimes.com/2005/06/30/theater/newsandfeatures/30glas.html?_r=0
Smith, Dinitia. "Rediscovering a Playwright Lost to Time" ('The New
York Times')]
*
[
https://archive.today/20130615223414/http://www.davenportlibrary.com/genealogy-and-history/local-history-info/the-people/susan-glaspell/
Susan Glaspell biographical essay], Davenport Public Library
*
*
*
*
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20130421091457/http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/glaspell.htm
'Trifles', a one-act play by Susan Glaspell]
* [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-A4FM1dHnM Panel Discussion on
Trifles/A Jury of Her Peers (youtube)]
*
[
https://archive.today/20121212105159/http://edsitement.neh.gov/launchpad-jury-her-peers
A Jury of Her Peers EDSITEment study guide]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20130127125010/http://www.midnightassassin.com/SGarticles.html
Glaspell's articles for 'Des Moines Daily News' on the Hossack murder
case], Midnight Assassin website
* [
https://www.siupress.com/9780809370177/fidelity/ 'Fidelity: An
Annotated Edition' from Southern Illinois University Press (2025)]
* [
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/susan-glaspell/ 'Fidelity' and
'Brook Evans' at Persephone Books]
* Two Glaspell portraits by Nickolas Muray;
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20110614075341/http://www.geh.org/ar/strip88/htmlsrc/m197701881199_ful.html#topofimage
photo #1],
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20110614075608/http://www.geh.org/ar/strip88/htmlsrc/m197701881200_ful.html#topofimage
photo #2]
* [
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7097/7097-h/7097-h.htm Autobiography
of Black Hawk]
*
*[
https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/709 Susan
Glaspell papers] are housed University of Iowa Libraries Special
Collections & Archives
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=========
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