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New Athens Players PodcastAuthor: New Athens Players
This is the podcast companion to the New Athens Players, a theater company in the Quad Cities -- the home of Susan Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook. The two of them founded the Provincetown Players, a cutting-edge and influential group in the development of American drama. The name "New Athens" is based on a remark Cook made to Floyd Dell, that they should go back to Davenport and make it a "New Athens." The dream was never fulfilled in his lifetime: Cook died in Greece in 1924. This podcast will include audio recordings related to the legacy of Glaspell and the Provincetown Players. Language: en Genres: Arts, Performing Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Glaspell: One's Self-Respect (1911) [narrated by Jane Simonsen]
Episode 4
Sunday, 23 November, 2025
Originally published in Red Book Magazine in July 1911, "One's Self-Respect" is a fairly early story of Susan Glaspell that had been neglected and forgotten through decades of collection and study of her work, but was brought to light (along with a few other stories) by Noelia Hernando-Real in a chapter of Susan Glaspell in Context, edited by J. Ellen Gainor (Cambridge, 2023); in one section of the chapter, Veronica Makowski offers an analysis of the story, which depicts Edith Stuart, the main character, spending a requisite period of residence in Reno, Nevada, in pursuit of a divorce. (At the time, Reno was known as the "Divorce Capital of America" on account of the relative ease with which this could be obtained there.) In the process, she finds new female friends and ultimately ponders what she really wants and what she is willing to put up with, while maintaining her "self-respect." This exploration of the difficulties faced by women in the early 20th century when it comes to marriage and divorce in a general way prefigures Glaspell's 1915 novel, Fidelity.
