Susan Glaspell
Susan Glaspell in 1916 just after Fidelity was published
Born in 1876 of pioneer stock, Susan Glaspell lived respectably in Davenport, Iowa until she was 36. Having been a society reporter, she went to university, turned to political journalism, wrote magazine stories and spent time in Chicago and Paris. Her novel, The Glory of the Conquered, was a popular success. After her marriage to the (twice-divorced) Iowan George ‘Jig’ Cram Cook she lived in Provincetown, Cape Cod and Greenwich Village, among a close-knit community of writers. Her third novel Fidelity came out in 1915, the year she and Jig founded the Provincetown Players, for which she wrote ten plays including Trifles and The Verge. After Jig died in Greece in 1924 she lived for a while with a young writer, Norman Matson, and wrote novels such as Brook Evans (1928). Her play Alison’s House won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. She died in Provincetown in 1948.