resigned at age twenty-four. She moved back to Davenport to focus on writing fiction. Unlike many new writers, she readily had her stories accepted and was published by the most widely read periodicals, including Harper's, Munsey's, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Home Companion. It was a golden age of short stories. She used a large cash prize from a short story magazine to finance her move to Chicago, where she wrote her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered, published in 1909. It was a best-seller, and The New York Times declared, "Unless Susan Glaspell is an assumed name covering that of some already well-known author—and the book has qualities so out of the ordinary in American fiction and so individual that this does not seem likely—The Glory of the Conquered brings forward a new author of fine and notable gifts." Glaspell published her second novel, The Visioning, in 1911. The New York Times said of the book, "it does prove Miss Glaspell's staying power, her possession of abilities that put her high among the ranks of American storytellers." Her third novel, Fidelity, was published in 1915. The New York Times described it as "a big and real contribution to American novels." Theatre While in Davenport, Glaspell associated with other local writers to form the Davenport group. Among them was George Cram Cook, who was teaching English literature at the University of Iowa. He was from a wealthy family and also was a gentleman farmer. Though he was already in his second, troubled marriage, Glaspell fell in love with him. He divorced and they wed in 1913. To escape Davenport's disapproving gossip and seek a larger artistic world, Glaspell and Cook moved to New York City's Greenwich Village. There they became key participants in America's first avant-garde artistic movement, and associated with many of the era's most well-known social reformers and activists, including Upton Sinclair, Emma Goldman, and John Reed. Glaspell became a leading member of Heterodoxy, an early feminist debating group composed of the premier women's rights crusaders. After a series of miscarriages, she underwent surgery to remove a fibroid tumor. Along with many others of their artistic circles, Glaspell and Cook went to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, for the summer of 1915, where they rented a cottage. Although still weak from surgery, Glaspell worked with Cook and friends to start an experimental theatre company, a "creative collective". They produced their first plays in a refurbished fishing wharf arranged for by another member of their group. What became known as the Provincetown Playhouse would be devoted to creating and producing artistic plays to reflect contemporary American issues. The Players rejected the more commercial and escapist melodramas produced on Broadway. Despite the successes of her earlier fiction, Glaspell would be most remembered for the twelve groundbreaking plays she submitted to the company over the next seven years. Her first play, Trifles (1916), was based on the murder trial she had covered as a young reporter in Des Moines. Today considered an early feminist masterpiece, it was an instant success, riveting audiences with its daring views of justice and morality. It has since become one of the most anthologized works in American theatre history. In 1921 she completed Inheritors; following three generations of a pioneer family, it is perhaps America's first modern historical drama. This same year she also finished The Verge, one of the earliest American works of expressionist art. Believing an amateur staff would lead to increased innovation, the Provincetown playwrights often participated directly in the production of their own plays. Though untrained, Glaspell received further acclaim as