23 Facts About Susan Glaspell

Susan Keating Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress.

Susan Glaspell was born in Iowa in 1876 to Elmer Glaspell, a hay farmer, and his wife Alice Keating, a public school teacher.

Susan Glaspell had an older brother, Raymond, and a younger brother, Frank.

Susan Glaspell was raised on a rural homestead just below the bluffs of the Mississippi River along the western edge of Davenport, Iowa.

Susan Glaspell told of regular visits by Indians to the farm in the years before Iowa statehood.

Susan Glaspell was an accomplished student in the city's public schools, taking an advanced course of study and giving a commencement speech at her 1894 graduation.

At twenty-one, Susan Glaspell enrolled at Drake University, against the local belief that college made women unfit for marriage.

The day after graduation, Susan Glaspell began working full-time for the Des Moines paper as a reporter, a rare position for a woman, particularly as she was assigned to cover the state legislature and murder cases.

Susan Glaspell moved back to Davenport to focus on writing fiction.

Susan Glaspell used a large cash prize from a short story magazine to finance her move to Chicago, where she wrote her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered, published in 1909.

Susan Glaspell was from a wealthy family and was a gentleman farmer.

Susan Glaspell became a leading member of Heterodoxy, an early feminist debating group composed of the premier women's rights crusaders.

Susan Glaspell was by now at the height of her theatre career, with her most recent play, The Verge, bringing the most praise.

However, the influence and critical success of Susan Glaspell's plays did not translate into financial gain.

Susan Glaspell returned to Cape Cod after Cook's death, where she wrote a well-received biography and tribute to her late husband, The Road to the Temple.

Susan Glaspell wrote the play Alison's House, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1931.

Susan Glaspell fell into her first and only period of low productivity as she struggled with depression, alcoholism, and poor health.

In 1936, Susan Glaspell moved to Chicago after being appointed Midwest Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project during the Great Depression.

Susan Glaspell returned to Cape Cod when her work for the Federal Theater Project was finished.

Susan Glaspell died of viral pneumonia in Provincetown on July 28,1948.

Susan Glaspell was highly regarded in her time, and was well known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Susan Glaspell's novels fell out of print after her death.

In September 2015, celebrating the centenary of Provincetown Players, American Bard Theater Company presented a 12-hour celebration, featuring performances of 10 of Susan Glaspell's plays in a single day.