Susan Keating Glaspell, The Comic Artist: A Play in Three Acts

Sherry Engle (Manhattan College)
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The Comic Artist

is a collaborative effort of Susan Glaspell and Norman Matson, written in the spring and fall of 1926. The play was published before a London production in 1928 and did not open in New York until April 1933; despite first-rate actors in the production at the Morosco Theatre, the play ran for only 21 performances, possibly reflecting the low appeal of serious plays for Depression-Era audiences. While some Glaspell scholars may dismiss

The Comic Artist

because of “difficulties of thematic attribution” as a collaborative work (Makowsky 154), other Glaspell scholars credit authorship in different ways. One theory maintains that Glaspell wrote the play with Matson—seventeen years her junior—because she was “[e]ager to help him toward success”, but that the play was…

2569 words

Citation: Engle, Sherry. "The Comic Artist: A Play in Three Acts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 September 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16005, accessed 28 March 2024.]

16005 The Comic Artist: A Play in Three Acts 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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