Susan Glaspell was an 18th-century novelist, actor, playwright, and journalist. She founded the first modern American Theatre company, the Provincetown Company, in collaboration with her husband, George Cram Cook.
Also, Glaspell gained wide popularity for her short stories that were about fifty in number. Then she also tried her hands on the other genres and wrote a biography, nine novels, and fifteen plays.
Glaspell’s works mostly explore contemporary issues of social life like gender and ethics while showing the profound sympathetic nature of the human soul. She also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930 for her play “Alison’s House”.
Her stories are set in the Midwest, her native land, and in a semi-biography, explore social issues.
When her husband died in Greece, Glaspell returned to the US with her children and joined the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. There she worked in the Federal Theatre Project as Midwest Bureau Director.
During her life, Glaspell remained an acclaimed writer but her works became less attractive after her death and went out of print.
In the 20th-century, the critical evaluation of the contributions of women has reinvented the lost interest in Glaspell’s works, and it renewed her reputation. In this century, she acquired the importance of being the first significant modern playwright and an early feminist.
The play “Trifles” (1916) remains one of the greatest English Theatrical works. Also, the leading critic, Michael Billington, calls Glaspell ‘American drama’s best-kept secret’.
Susan Glaspell Biography
Susan Keating Glaspell was born on 1st July 1876, in Iowa to a hay farmer, Elmer Glaspell, and a school teacher, Alice Keating. She was raised in a rural environment of a farm with a homestead below the edges of the Mississippi River. Susan was considered a sensitive child who would rescue and tend to stray animals.
Glaspell’s grandmother shaped her view of the surrounding world as she would tell her stories of the visits of Indians to the farm before the statehood of Iowa.
Also, she was influenced by the biography of the Sauk leader as she lived directly opposite to the Black Hawk’s village across the river.
The family sold the farm and shifted to Davenport during the economic Panic of 1893. There she enrolled in a public school in the city and took some advanced courses. She graduated in 1894 and even gave a commencement speech in the ceremony being an accomplished child.
By 18, Glaspell became a journalist for a local paper, and her first earning started. By 20 years of age, she wrote ‘Society,’ a weekly that sarcastically criticized the upper-class.
When she turned 21, Glaspell enrolled in Drake University in philosophy major against the social norms. At the University, she won different male-dominated debates that earned her a chance to represent her university in the State debate tournament.
At Glaspell’s graduation, the Des Moines paper shared an article about Glaspell’s leadership years in the social and intellectual circles of the University. The next day after graduation, she joined the paper as a reporter for covering murder cases and legislation, which was a rare job for women of her time.
However, Glaspell resigned at 24 years of age after reporting a murder case of an offensive husband by his wife.
Early Writing
Glaspell returned to Davenport intending to become a full-time fiction writer. She began her career with short stories as this genre was in its golden period at that time.
Luckily, she became successful in getting her stories liked from the beginning and were published by the famous periodicals like Ladies’ Home Journal, Harper’s Magazine, Woman’s Home Companion, and Munsey’s Magazine.
Novel Writing
With the huge earnings from the short story magazine, The Black Cat, Glaspell moved to Chicago and began working on her first novel, “The Glory of the Conquered” that Glaspell published in 1909.
The novel became a best-seller and was praised by the New York Times for the unique fabrication of the fiction.
Glaspell’s second novel, “The Visioning” appeared in 1911, and a third one, “Fidelity” in 1915. Both of these novels were acclaimed by the New York Times as real contributions to English literary history.
Literary Influences
Living in Davenport, Glaspell formed the Davenport group in association with other local writers. Among them was George Cram Cook, a teacher of English literature at Iowa University with whom she fell in love.
He divorced his second wife and married Glaspell in 1913. However, they moved to New York City to get away from the disapproving eyes of people and engage in wider literary activities.
There they became the leading roles of the early avant-garde movement in America. They also became acquainted with the influential literary figures like John Reed and Emma Goldman. Glaspell was also a leading figure in the emerging feminist movement for women’s rights.
Theatre
Later, Glaspell moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts, and founded an experimental theatre company that was later named as Provincetown Playhouse.
During the next seven years, Glaspell produced 12 remarkable plays for the company for which she is widely remembered.
The first play was “Trifles” produced in 1916, which was about a murder case that she covered for Des Moines. It is considered as an early feminist work. Then “Inheritors” was completed in 1921.
She also wrote “The Verge” that year, which is considered as a form of the earliest American expressionistic art.
In their circle, playwrights often participated in the production of their plays, and Glaspell did it. She received a huge appreciation for her acting also. Furthermore, while considering the creation of innovative plays, she discovered Eugene O’Neill, who became one of the greatest English playwrights.
Remarkable Works
After some time, the couple left for Greece, where Cook died in 1924. Glaspell was already among the highest literary figures of the time. She returned to Massachusetts and in 1927, wrote an autobiography in the memory of her husband, “The Road to the Temple”.
During this time, she also wrote three remarkable novels, “Brook Evans” in 1928, “Fugitive’s Return” in 1929, and 1931, “Ambrose Holt and Family.” She also created the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Alice’s House” in 1930.
End of Career
After this work, she fell into depression and did not create any notable work for longer. Her last three novels, “The Morning is near Us” in 1939, “Norma Ashe” produced in 1941, and “Judd Rankin’s Daughter” in 1945 were about family life and regional details.
On 28 July 1948, Glaspell died of a pneumonic infection.
Susan Glaspell’s Writing Style
Glaspell’s writing style is unparalleled in the genres of the short story, novel, and drama in American history. She experimented with the writing style and gathered various topics in her works, mostly inspired by her true experiences.
Furthermore, feminism became a major influence in Glaspell’s work as she was actively involved in the movement.
Innovations
As Glaspell was working for the theatre, she knew the necessity of innovations in the structure of her works. This extensive involvement in playwriting also helped her bring innovations in novel writing.
As America was shifting from regionalism to modernism, Glaspell also experimented with style.
Glaspell and her husband also founded Provincetown Players in which they focused more on innovative style rather than the artistic compromise that the commercially successful theatre required.
Glaspell added 11 innovative plays to the company’s reputation that included “Trifles” and “Inheritors” in realistic mode to satirical works like “Suppressed Desires” (1915) and “Woman’s Honor” (1918). Likewise, she moved to expressionistic form in “The Verge”, another acclaimed work.
Expressionism
In her experimenting style, Glaspell tried her hands at expressionism also. The expressionist movement emerged in the 1920s and the purpose was to convey emotions, ideas, and experiences through deformation of medium and forms rather than conveying straightforward reality.
The novel “The Verge” is the best example of Susan’s expressionism. In the story, the audience is familiarized with Clair’s experiences as she wanders through a world dealing with the trauma of World War-I and the new freedom given to women through suffrage.
Likewise, “Trifles” is another expressionistic work of Susan. She paints an expressionistic image of a vague murder case where one clue is analyzed to discover the truth of the situation.
Ironically, the unofficial female investigators somehow manage to grab the real circumstances while the official males do not succeed in their attempt to do so. In this way, Glaspell artistically attempts to find out new modes of human nature.
Genre
Being an innovative writer, Susan Glaspell attempted to write in mostly three genres of fiction; drama, novel, and the short story. In these genres, she blends various literary and artistic theories like expressionism, surrealism, realism, and feminism.
For instance, “Trifles” is a diffusion of expressionism and feminism in a dramatic form. Likewise, “Inheritors” is a one-act play about an idealistic farmer.
Another work, “Infidelity” is in the novel genre, and it supports feminism in the form of a woman’s struggle with social norms.
Glaspell also wrote a non-fiction autobiography, “The Road to the Temple”.
Biographical Elements
As every person’s thoughts are molded by the personal experiences and way of life, Glaspell’s works also have biographical elements attached to her style. For instance, in her most appreciated novel, “Fidelity,” there is a representation of a female protagonist who craves freedom and, at the same time, wants family life.
The novel affirms women’s fidelity to marriage, family, society, and their selves. The novel is inspired by Susan’s personal life and her relationship with George Cook.
As Cook was already married at the time of their intimacy, they could not marry. Even after their marriage, their relationship was disapproved because of Cook’s divorce, and they moved to New York.
In the novel, Ruth Holland is an aggressive woman who tries to become a new woman against patriarchal norms and also struggles to decide whether she has been infidel to society or faithful to herself.
The play “Trifles” is also based on Susan’s experience. When she was a journalist, she reported a murder case of a husband by his wife who strangled him with a rope.
After that incident, Susan abruptly left the job and began writing. She fictively depicted that murder case in “Trifles” and its adaptation in a short story, “A Jury of Her Peers.”
Themes
As the 20th-century was the time of the shift from traditional concepts to modernism, Glaspell’s works became pioneers of different modern ideas. For instance, there is a significant impact of the feministic movement in her works.
Likewise, after the disillusionment of World War-I, individuals’ struggle for identity was a common factor that is depicted in Glaspell’s works. Furthermore, conflict with society and youth idealism can also be detected as general representations in her writings.
Feminism
In Glaspell’s writing, feminism is a significant feature that she adopts. There is a vivid representation of feminine issues and their mutual understanding level.
For instance, women mostly suffer male dominance, and they struggle to express their individuality in a patriarchal society.
Also, there is a kind of complicated relationship between fraud and love between mothers and daughters. Furthermore, she presents that mutual friendship between women leads to the development of self-respect and autonomy.
For example, in the play “Trifles”, Glaspell demonstrates her feminist point of view. A year later, she wrote the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” to demonstrate the need for females’ solidarity to enhance connectivity between their feelings.
The most important plays, “Trifles”, “A Woman’s Honor”, and “The Verge” in 1916, 1918, and 1921 appeared in the first wave of feminism. During this wave, women stood for their right to have a job, and other opportunities and Glaspell depicted these features in her writing.
Individual versus Social Life
Glaspell represents daily life subjects and issues in her literary pieces. In particular works, she also pens down the clash or difference between the individual’s mental and personal world and the world around him. For example, the novel “Fidelity” describes the controversial association between women and society.
On the one hand, they yearn for freedom while, on the other hand, they want to be a crucial part of the family or society that tries to suppress them.
Likewise, in “Trifles”, women show resentment towards men as they are the dominating gender and represent society while women are just its factors. For instance, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find some clues for the murders case, but these shreds of evidence are quickly removed from investigation by the men even before the examination.
However, the women investigators demonstrate more intelligence than men in finding a motive to go further in the investigation. This conflict is quite common in social life.
Internal Identity
Glaspell expresses the struggle for identity and especially finding identity in the changing social structure after World War-I. Precisely, the most acclaimed work, “Trifles” reflects the trouble of a person’s struggles to actualize his identity.
For instance, Minnie, once a joyful and singing girl becomes a victim of her husband’s coldness. She is an isolated lady with a bird as her companion, and her husband kills it.
The inner conflict that she faces is to stand against her husband’s victimization and suffocation of a part of Minnie. At last, Minnie stands against submission and kills her husband the way he killed her bird and ultimately, her emotion.
In “Fidelity”, Glaspell also shows inner confusion and distress that shows the conflict between her desire for independence and the need for inclusion in society from which she demands freedom.
Gender Support
Being a feminist writer, Glaspell supports the idea of gender cooperation and connectivity. She depicts various instances in her works where the male gender supports patriarchal domination, while women support their fellows.
This is also a striking concept in feminism as Glaspell also struggled to create unity and connectivity between the feelings of women.
For example, in the one-act play “Trifles”, the women investigators find the clues of Minnie’s involvement in her husband’s murder. However, they hide the evidence because they know Minnie has suffered through her husband’s hands for years, and now she should not be punished.
On the contrary, the male investigators want Minnie to be punished because a man has been killed.
In “Fidelity”, Glaspell also attempts to create mutual feelings of relativity and connectivity between the feminine folk.
Legacy
Susan Glaspell was one of the highest literary figures of her time. She also won the Pulitzer Prize for “Alison’s House” in 1930. Also, her stories were published by the top periodicals of the time.
After the 1940s, she was criticized in derogatory terms and was neglected but with the beginning of feminist criticism in the 1970s, Glaspell gained wider importance.
In the 21th-century, seven biographies and several editions of works of Glaspell have been published. Due to the striking success of her plays, Glaspell is often regarded as the “Mother of American Drama”.
Her plays are mostly performed in colleges and university theatres also. The one-act play “Trifles” became an exceptionally beautiful literary piece in English history.