Susan Glaspell : A Critical Biography

During her lifetime, playwright and novelist Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was regarded as highly as Eugene O'Neill and Edith Wharton. Winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for drama (for ""Alison's House""), she was cofounder of the Provincetown Players, the little theatre that ""discovered"" O'Neill. Later, Glaspell was instrumental in introducing American drama to English audiences when her play ""The Verge"" was produced in London. Yet despite her many accomplishments, Glaspell is often overlooked in the standard histories of American theatre. Ozieblo combines an narrative of Glaspell's life with an analysis of her creative work. Rebelling early against the expectations imposed on women of her era, Glaspell grappled with the conflict between Victorian mores and feminist aspirations throughout her life. In ""Trifles"", now recognised as a groundbreaking feminist drama, she explored the reasons for a woman's extreme response to her husband's demanding, authoritarian stance. Ozieblo also investigates Glaspell's relationship with dramatist George Cram Cook, exploring the scandal that surrounded their courtship and marriage as well as the life they led among the bohemians of Greenwich Village.