The Road to the Temple - A Biography of George Cram Cook

Eugene O' Neill is one of America's most celebrated playwrights, but relatively few Americans know the name of the man who essentially gave O' Neill his first chance at greatness: George Cram "Jig" Cook, one of America's most colorful and original thinkers and the founder of the Provincetown Players, the first company to stage O'Neill. Cook's story, with all its hopes, dreams, and disappointments, is told in The Road to the Temple.
First published in 1927 in the United States and reprinted in 1941, this biography is the work of Cook's third wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell, It traces Cook's lifelong search for self, a search that took him from his birthplace in Davenport, Iowa, to New York to Delphi; from university teaching and truck farming, to the Provincetown Players, to the antiquity of Greece. Part of Jig's story is told by excerpts from his journals, pictures, poetry, and fiction. Interwoven with narrative flashbacks, these entries concerning his day-to-day activities as well as his thoughts and feelings bring him to life for the reader. In addition, Glaspell offers finely crafted portraits of the American Midwest in the late nineteenth century; a vivid picture of Greenwich Village between 1910 and 1920; and a moving and lyrical account of the life she and Jig lived in Greece, where Jig died on January 11, 1924. A compelling combination of biography and autobiography, this volume presents a unique and personal picture of a fascinating American original."

List of contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Light of Imagination by Linda Ben-Zvi     

Preface to the 1927 Edition     

Preface to the 1941 Edition     

1. The Unintended Beauty     

2. Who Is an Honest Man?     

3. A Log-cabin     

4. Calendars     

5. Pop-eye Wilson     

6. The Silence of Noon     

7. Wordsworth on the Mississippi     

8. Harvard, '93     

9. John Alden     

10. Black Hawk's Watch Tower     

11. Heidelberg     

12. His Friend Mrs. Y_____     

13. Instructor Cook     

14. Sappho in Iowa City     

15. Dream Cities     

16. Kipling to Corporal Cook     

17. "Unsent"     

18. "The Faggot and the Flame"     

19. The Truck-Farmer     

20. Life Breaks a Shell     

21. The Locked Door     

22. World of Symbols     

23. Behold the Sun!     

24. "The Needle and the North"     

25. The Monist Society     

26. The Greenhouse Speaks     

27. Though Stone Be Broken     

28. Chicago     

29. Our House in Provincetown     

30. The Rhythm of the Days     

31. The Old Wharf     

32. Fire from Heaven     

33. Certain Women     

34. Nezer     

35. Paths to "The Spring"     

36. The Beloved Community     

37. The Parthenon!     

38. Making New Friends     

39. Delphi     

40. The Music of the Flocks     

41. The Bird and the Gods     

42. Shepherds and Bandits     

43. A Winter in Athens     

44. TòPuppy     

45. The Brook Runs Red     

46. Our Days at Kalania     

47. Building Walls     

48. "At Fifty I Ask God"     

49. The Play Begins     

50. By an Ancient Threshing-Floor     

51. The Play Continues     

52. Death in Delphi     

53. "The Women Spin-The Sheep Pass"     

Notes on the Text     

Selected Bibliography by Linda Ben-Zvi     

Index     

About the author

Susan Glaspell, an American dramatist, writer, journalist, and actress, lived from 1876 until 1948. She was raised in Iowa, went to Drake University, and then became a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Later, she relocated to New York City and started creating plays. She rose to prominence with the Provincetown Players, an avant-garde ensemble of authors and artists who presented experimental plays in Greenwich Village. Gender and social justice were frequent themes in Glaspell's plays. "Trifles" (1916), a one-act drama that examines the life of rural women in the Midwest and the violence that may develop in a patriarchal culture, is her most well-known work. Other noteworthy plays include "The Verge" (1921), which is about a woman's battle for artistic expression in an oppressive society, and "Inheritors" (1921), which is about the disagreements between a rich family over inheritance. In 1931, she won the Pulitzer Prize for theater for her play "Alison's House." Glaspell was a political activist and a supporter of women's rights in addition to her literary profession. She participated in a number of causes, such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and was a member of the Heterodoxy Club, a feminist organization in Greenwich Village. 1948 saw the passing of Glaspell in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Product details

• Authors: Susan Glaspell
• Publisher: McFarland
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.01.2005
• EAN: 9780786420841
• ISBN: 978-0-7864-2084-1
• No. of pages: 366
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 22 mm
• Weight: 594 g
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet