Meet the Author
Susan Glaspell
American · 1876–1948 · Playwright, novelist, and journalist
Portrait: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A founder of the Provincetown Players whose one-act play Trifles became a landmark of American drama.
2 StoryBites Editions1 Big Book1 Short story1 Full text
Why read Susan Glaspell?
Glaspell wrote about women whose lives and knowledge the men around them overlook. Trifles and its story version, A Jury of Her Peers, are small in scale and sharp in effect. Read her to see how much meaning a writer can pack into a kitchen.
A life in six dates
- 1876Born in Davenport, Iowa
- 1900Reports on an Iowa murder case that later inspires Trifles
- 1915Co-founds the Provincetown Players
- 1916Trifles is first performed
- 1917Publishes A Jury of Her Peers
- 1931Wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Alison’s House
- 1948Dies in Provincetown, Massachusetts
Themes across the collection
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
The Little Theatre movementSmall companies like the Provincetown Players gave new American playwrights a stage.
JournalismHer years as a reporter supplied the real case behind her most famous work.
Early feminismHer work questions how the law and society judged women’s lives.
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