Susan Glaspell

Plays by Susan Glaspell

Plays by Susan Glaspell Trifles, The Outside, The Verge, Inheritors, Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 - July 27, 1948) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, director, novelist, biographer, and journalist. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theater company. During the Great Depression she served in the Works Progress Administration as Midwest Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project. A best-selling author in her own time, Glaspell's novels fell out of print after her death, during which time she was remembered primarily for discovering Eugene O'Neil, and for Trifles (1916), a one-act play frequently cited as one of the greatest works of American theater. Critical reassessment has led to renewed interest in her career, and she is today recognized as a pioneering feminist writer and America's first important modern female playwright. A prolific writer, Glaspell is known to have published nine novels, fourteen plays, and over fifty short stories. Often set in her native Iowa, these semi-autobiographical tales frequently address contemporary issues, such as gender, ethics, and dissent, while featuring deep, sympathetic characters who make principled stands.