Susan Glaspell

Today I went to the American Literature Association conference here in San Francisco, and attended wonderful sessions all day. I mostly chose talks about women writers, such as Willa Cather, Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, H.D., and Carson McCullers. One of the best sessions (a set of three talks) was on Susan Glaspell (1876-1948), which reminded me of how she is yet another author who was well known in her time, but then much less so, until feminist scholars in the 1970s brought attention back to her writing. Her powerful, very feminist one-act play, "Trifles," is now frequently anthologized. However, her longer plays and her novels are still neglected. It was encouraging to hear the talks this morning, and to find that there is a Susan Glaspell Society, a group of scholars who study, speak about, and write about her work. Long may her work live!