Susan Glaspell was one of the founding figures of modern American drama and, along with Eugene O'Neill, one of the most prominent playwrights of the little theater movement in the 1910s and 1920s. The value of her contribution to American drama rests largely upon her evocative portrayals of women's psychological oppression. Her work is also important as drama that interrogates what it means to be an American and what in particular constitutes an American idealism worth preserving.

Susan Keating Glaspell was born on 1 July 1876 in Davenport, Iowa, the second of three children and the only daughter of Elmer S. and Alice Keating Glaspell. (She routinely gave her birthdate as 1882, but census and school records verify the earlier date as correct.) Proud to be the daughter of pioneers, Glaspell later drew on her Midwestern heritage for material for her plays and fiction.

After graduating from public schools, Glaspell briefly...