Susan Glaspell's 'Fidelity' 1936

Jarrolds' Publishers - October 1936

One of the stimulating aspects of collecting series such as the Jarrolds' 'Jackdaws' is that one comes across  authors who one has never heard of, let alone read - such as Ethel Mannin, Paul Selver, Walter Masterman and, here, Susan Glaspell.

Glaspell (1876-1948) was not only a novelist but a playwright, actress and journalist.  Born in Iowa to Elmer Gaspell, a hay farmer, and his wife Alice Keating, a public school teacher, she grew up on the farm, being remembered as a 'precocious child', often rescuing stray animals. In 1891, her father sold the farm and the family moved to Davenport. By 18, Susan was earning a regular salary as a journalist for a local paper. After graduating from Drake University, she worked for the Des Moines paper as a reporter. She resigned, aged 24, and moved back to Davenport to focus on writing fiction. She was published in important periodicals, such as Ladies' Home Journal, Munsey's and Harper's. Moving to Chicago, she wrote her first novel, The Glory of the Conquered (also in Jarrolds' 'Jackdaws') The New York Times declared the book ...brings forward a new author of fine and notable gifts.

Susan Glaspell

Susan published her second novel, The Visioning in 1911 and this, her third novel in 1915. Fidelity tells the story of Ruth Holland, a twenty-year-old from Freeport, Iowa, who defies the society mores of the time and falls in love with a married man. Three years' later, they run away together to Colorado. She returns home after eleven years, as her father is dying (her mother died some while back). Her elder brother, Cyrus,  has never forgiven her but the younger brother, Ted, is much more sympathetic and supports her. Her sister is more ambivalent. Her best friend, Deane Franklin, now the respected local doctor, has kept in touch with her throughout, whereas her best female friend, Edith Lawrence, is too bound up in social niceties to renew the friendship.

Essentially, there are several 'fidelities': Ruth's to her lover, but also to her parents; Deane to Ruth; others in the small town to its social constructs. Glaspell deals with the problematical relationship (at the turn of the twentieth century) between women and society, especially with women's longing for freedom and the need to be part of a community or family. Should you be faithful to your desires/needs or society's expectations? The author exposes the moral issues in various characters' perspectives which, occasional felt a bit confusing to me; once or twice rather like sitting on the fence. However, it is probably better to look at it as the author's ability to have a genuine rounded view of the events as they unfolded. Glaspell deconstructs the romantic myths of love and marriage. Fidelity serves as a commentary on a middle-class society that prioritizes marriage as the ultimate goal, and shows that romantic love cannot be expected to fulfil everyone's existences.

It is interesting to read that when Glaspell fell in love with George Cook, he was already into his second troubled marriage. He divorced and they wed in 1913. They escaped the community gossip of Davenport (both were part of the town's group of local writers) and moved to New York City. It seems that her real-life experience played a mayor part in the development of the main themes in Fidelity, published only two years later. After her husband's death in 1924, she experienced a period of low productivity, struggling with depression, alcoholism and poor health. Regaining control of her drinking and creativity, she also reconnected with her siblings - which her fictional character Ruth Holland had also tried to do.