Susan Glaspell

Series

• Theater: Theory/Text/Performance

The career of Susan Glaspell (1876-1948), the American playwright and novelist, follows closely the trajectory of other "reclaimed" American women writers of the century such as Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Zora Neale Hurston: well known in her time, effaced from canonical consideration after her death, rediscovered years later through the surfacing of one work, around which critical attention has focused. Glaspell was a respected international playwright and novelist who amassed some of the most impressive credentials in American theater history, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. Over the past fifteen years, she has been rediscovered through the work of leading feminist scholars; and her one-act play Trifles and its short story form, "A Jury of Her Peers," have become classics.

This book is the first collection devoted to the study of the body of Glaspell's work. Essays by leading playwrights and scholars provide an array of perspectives on the writer and her work. The book features the first complete Glaspell bibliography, including original reviews of her plays and fiction and recent critical studies of her writing.

Linda Ben-Zvi is Professor of English and Theater, Colorado State University.

Praise / Awards

• "In this comprehensive study of the early twentieth century playwright and fiction writer, Ben-Zvi reclaims for Glaspell her well-deserved place in the history of American drama."
  —Choice
  
• "This collection of essays is a welcome addition tot he growing field of Glaspell scholarship."
  —Modern Drama
  
• "This much-needed collection provides the reader with detailed analysis of Glaspell's plays as well as her other more literary work. . . . [T]his book, in bringing together recent work from Susan Glaspell scholars, provides a depth and range of thought so far unparalleled. This is a tremendously useful collection, especially for those who are less than familiar with the context of Glaspell's dramatic writing, and the book is invaluable for students, scholars, and practitioners alike."
  —New Theatre Quarterly
  
• "For its astute history and sensitive critical perspectives of Glaspell, her work, and her time, this text is most welcome to feminist drama critics and hopefully to all American theatre historians. . . . Editor Ben-Zvi's sweeping critical anthology of Susan Glaspell's work and times reveals largely-undervalued knowledge of Glaspell, new critical perspectives with which to view her work, and observations as to why Glaspell has not received her deserved place in American theatre history. These critics evaluate and establish Glaspell as a feminist writer of significance in both her style and content. The anthology should be ordered for every college library and is an excellent resource for a woman writers course, an American theatre course, and a women's theatre course."
  —Theatre History Studies
  
• "This volume is intended for both those unacquainted with Glaspell's work and for those who know it well. Ben-Zvi's meticulous organization ensures that it fulfills this difficult brief."
  —Theatre Journal