Susan Glaspell (1876 – 1948) was a bestselling novelist and a Pulitzer prize winning playwright. She was a founding member of the Provincetown Players, one of the most important collaboratives in the development of modern drama in the United States. She also served in the Works Progress Administration as Midwest Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project. WPA Graphic The Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 by Presidential order (Congress funded it annually but did not set it up). ... Scene from Orson Welles Voodoo Macbeth The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a project to fund theater performances in the United States during the Great Depression. ...

Her novels and plays are committed to developing deep, sympathetic characters, to understanding "life" in its complexity. Though realism was the medium of her fiction, she was also greatly interested in philosophy and religion. Many of her characters make principled stands.

As part of the Provincetown Players, she arranged for the first ever reading of a play by Eugene O'Neill. Eugene Gladstone ONeill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was a Nobel- and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. ...

Early Years

Susan Keating Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1876 (the ersatz birthyear of 1882 is sometimes seen). Before college, she worked on the local paper in Davenport, writing the society column. She then enrolled in Drake University in Des Moines and earned her Bachelor's degree in 1899. She worked as a reporter for a Des Moines paper, where she was appointed to report on the murder trial of John Hossack in 1900. This crime would be the basis for two of her best known works today, "A Jury of Her Peers," (1917) a short-story, and the one-act-play "Trifles" (1916). She studied for one semester of graduate school in philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1901. Motto: Working together to serve you Location in the State of Iowa Coordinates: , Country State County Scott County Incorporated 1839 Government  - Mayor Ed Winborn Area  - City  64. ... Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in the city of Des Moines, Iowa. ... Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... A Jury of Her Peers is a short story by Susan Glaspell, loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell covered while working as a journalist. ... Trifles is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. ...

Her fiction began to appear in periodicals. "For the Love of the Hills," won a prize of $500.00 from Black Cat Magazine, an augur of her future success.

Her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered was published in 1909. She published the "Visioning" in 1911 and "Fidelity" in 1915.

Middle Period

She married George Cram Cook, whom she met at a meeting of the Davenport Monist Society. Cook was a sometime classics professor, a novelist and poet, and an itinerant farmer. George Cram Cook or Jig Cook (October 7, 1873 – January 14, 1924) was an U.S. Novelist, poet, and playwright. ...

The couple moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts, spending winters in Greenwich Village in New York City. It was Cook who first suggested to Glaspell that she write plays, co-authoring her first play, "Suppressed Desires." Nickname: Location in Barnstable County in Massachusetts U.S. Census Map Coordinates: , Country State County Barnstable Settled 1700 Incorporated 1727 Government  - Type Open town meeting  - Town    Manager Sharon Lynn Area  - Total 17. ...

Together with friends they founded the influential Provincetown Players theater group in 1915, on an abandoned wharf by their house on Commercial Street. The group produced plays by both Cook and Glaspell, as well as helping to launch the career of Eugene O'Neill. Glaspell's plays for the Provincetown Players won critical acclaim. Plays she wrote for the group include "Trifles," "Inheritors" and "The Verge." The group was run on a collaborative model. Glaspell also acted some of them. At this time, royalties from her short-stories and novels largely supported the couple. The Provincetown Players was a theater company located in Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, and famous for producing the plays of American playwright Eugene ONeill. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Eugene Gladstone ONeill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was a Nobel- and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. ...

Glaspell kept company with many of the era's reformers and socialists, including Emma Goldman, John Reed (journalist), Louise Bryant, and Upton Sinclair. Her novels and plays are understood in this context, as well as the context of popular and regional writers, such as Zona Gale. Theory Issues Culture By region Lists Anarchism Portal Politics Portal ·        Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) aka Red Emma, was a Lithuanian-born anarchist known for her writings and speeches. ... John Reeds signature John Jack Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 – October 19, 1920) was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist, famous for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World. ... Louise Bryant (December 5, 1885 - January 6, 1936) born Reno, Nevada was a journalist, writer, and feminist known for her Marxist writings and bohemian lifestyle. ... Upton Sinclair Jr. ... Zona Gale (August 26, 1874-1938) was an American writer. ...

In 1922 Glaspell and Cook left their successful theatre behind so Cook could write and study in Delphi, Greece. Cook died there in 1924. Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... View of Delphi, looking down from the theater. ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ...

Glaspell returned to Provincetown. She wrote a biography of her late husband, The Road to the Temple, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her 1931 play, Alison's House. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Late Life

In the 1930s, she lived again briefly in Chicago, where she served as Midwest Bureau Director for the Federal Theatre Project. Poster for Festival of American Dance, Los Angeles Federal Theatre Project, WPA, 1937 The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a New Deal project to fund theater and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression. ...

Glaspell died in Provincetown in 1948. Though several of her novels were bestsellers, her popularity decreased after her death, and almost all of her novels are out of print (with the exception of "Fidelity" and "Brook Evans", recently reprinted by Persephone Books), but she is still highly regarded for her experimental plays and her widely anthologized short story "A Jury of Her Peers". The short story was adapted from her play Trifles, which depicts the true story of the alleged murder of a farmer by his wife. A Jury of Her Peers is a short story by Susan Glaspell, loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell covered while working as a journalist. ... Trifles is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. ...

Works by Glaspell

Drama

• Suppressed Desires (1915) Co-written with George Cram Cook, (who was also her husband).
• Trifles (1916) Adapted into the short story A Jury of Her Peers (1917)
• Close the Book (1917)
• The Outside (1920)
• The People (1917)
• Woman's Honor (1918)
• Tickless Time (1918) (Co-written with Glaspell's husband, George Cram Cook)
• Bernice (1919)
• Inheritors (1921)
• The Verge (1921)
• Chains of Dew (1922)
• The Comic Artist (1927) Co-written with Norman Matson
• Alison's House (1930)

Trifles is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. ... The Outside (1920) is the shortest and least written about plays by Susan Glaspell. ... George Cram Cook or Jig Cook (October 7, 1873 – January 14, 1924) was an U.S. Novelist, poet, and playwright. ... Inheritors, (1921) by American dramatist Susan Glaspell concerns the legacy of an idealistic farmer who wills his highly coveted midwest farmland to the establishment of a college (Act I.) Forty years later, when his granddaughter stands up for the rights of Hindu nationals to protest at the college her grandfather...

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)
• Norman Ashe (1942)
• Judd Rankin's Daughter (1945)

Short story collections

• Lifted Masks: Stories (1912)
• A Jury of Her Peers (1929)

A Jury of Her Peers is a short story by Susan Glaspell, loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell covered while working as a journalist. ...

Other

• The Road to the Temple (1929) A biography of Glaspell's husband, George Cram Cook

The Glory of the Conquered, or the Story of A Great Love (1909) tells the story of Ernestine Stanley, a painter, who marries Karl Hubers, a research physician. Both are young and attractive and have promising careers. Dr. Hubers is expected to cure cancer. The title is derived from the sculpture Gloria Victis by Mercie. Gloria Victis by Mercié Gloria Victis (glory to the vanquished) is a sculpture by Antonin Mercié. Created in 1874 as pictured is seen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Mercié designed this sculpture following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. ...

External links

• Perspective in American Literature:Susan Glaspell
• Works by Susan Glaspell at Project Gutenberg
• Susan Glaspell at the Internet Broadway Database