TRIFLES is Based on a Real Murder Case

In 1900 Susan Glaspell reported on the murder of farmer John Hossack. The Hossack family lived in Medora, Iowa, which is located near the city in South Central Iowa, Indianola. Glaspell reported extensively on the case in the Des Moines Daily News.  As part of her reporting, Glaspell visited the farmhouse of the Hossack farm and the memory of that visit influenced her use of the farmhouse setting in Trifles. Below is the image of the victim's head wound that appeared in the newspaper along with Glaspell's reporting in December 1900. Note the last sentence in the original caption that highlights the sensational nature of the story and the fact that this image is an exclusive in this paper.

 
The case remains an unsolved murder and a book was recently written about it entitled Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Algonquin Books, 2005).

"A Jury of Her Peers" Short Story by Susan Glaspell

Susan Glaspell was inspired to write the play Trifles by a murder trial that she covered for the Des Moines Daily News. The case was notable because the attorney accused the wife of man who was murdered of the crime. Glaspell had an opportunity to visit the home that the victim and the accused shared.

After she wrote Trifles, she wrote a short story version of the tale. It was published a year after the performance of the play. You can read her full story here: https://www.learner.org/exhibits/literature/story/fulltext.html

Biography of Susan Glaspell

Susan Glaspell was a playwright, novelist, journalist, and actress. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1931 for her play Alison's House.  She was just the second woman to win the Pulitzer. Born in 1876 in Davenport, Iowa, she graduated from high school in 1894 and immediately went to work at the Davenport Morning Republican newspaper as a reporter. After two years, she was given an editorial post on the weekly magazine and wrote a regular column. Three years after high school, she enrolled in college and graduated in 1899 from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, with a BA in Philosophy. After graduation, she went to work at the Des Moines Daily News as a Statehouse reporter. While there she wrote a regular column called "The News Girl." After working at the Daily News for a short time, she retired from reporting and became a full time freelance writer. She won her first prize for writing in 1904.

She met her future husband, George "Jig" Cram Cook in Davenport, but at the time, he was engaged and subsequently married to another woman. Despite his marriage, he and Susan continued their romantic involvement. In 1911, he divorced from his wife and in 1913, Glaspell and Cook married. In 1915, they went to Provincetown, Massachussetts, for the summer. It was an enclave for artists and writers and the couple found that several of their new friends had written plays. Cook and Glaspell decided to have them performed for the entertainment of those assembled. These simple performances soon drew the attention of the wider community and the Provincetown Players were born.

In the next seven years, the Players had premiered more than ninety new plays by more than fifty American Playwrights.

For more on Susan Glaspell, please see the following:
http://www.davenportlibrary.com/genealogy-and-history/local-history-info/history-faq/people/susan-glaspell/

Buy Tickets to The Glaspell Project Sept. 28-Oct. 7

Performances of the Glaspell Project will run from Friday, September 28, to October 7. Don't miss the two one act plays by Susan Glaspell: Trifles (1916) and Woman's Honor (1918).

Get your tickets HERE.

The Glaspell Project: Trifles and Woman's Honor
by Susan Glaspell
Directed by Randy Reinholz
SDSU's Experimental Theatre
on the campus of San Diego State University
September 28-October 7, 2018