George Cram Cook or Jig Cook (October 7, 1873 – January 14, 1924) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, novelist, poet, and university professor. Believing it was his personal mission to inspire others, Cook led the founding of the Provincetown Players on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

in 1915; their "creative collective" was considered the first modern American theatre company. During his seven-year tenure with the group, Cook oversaw the production of nearly one-hundred new plays by fifty American playwrights. He is particularly remembered for producing the first plays of

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...

, along with those of Cook's wife

Susan Glaspell Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 – July 28, 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company. First know ...

, and several other noted writers. While teaching English literature at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

from 1896 to 1899, Cook also taught what is thought to be the first creative writing course. Titled "Verse-Making," the course was continued by Cook's colleagues at the university after he left. It was not until the 1950s that the

Iowa Writers Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative ...

was founded.

Biography

Cook wrote: "I was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, where my family was one of the town's oldest and most wealthy. My father, a corporate lawyer, strongly encouraged my education from a young age, while my mother instilled in me a passion for culture and the arts. I completed my bachelor's degree at Harvard in 1893." He continued his studies in Europe at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1894 and at the University of Geneva the following year. Upon completing these studies, Cook returned to Iowa. He taught English literature and classics at the

from 1895 until 1899. He also taught an early creative writing course, which he called "Verse Making". During the 1902 academic year, Cook was an English professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. It was not until the 1950s that Paul Engle is credited with developing what is considered the world's first creative writing program, the Iowa Writer's Workshop, which has gained renown. In Davenport, Cook associated with other young writers in what was informally referred to as the Davenport group. Among them was writer

. He divorced his second wife, Molly Price, with whom he had two children Nilla (b. 1908) and Harlan "Harl" (b. 1910) and he and Glaspell married in 1913. To escape community gossip and seek larger world for their work, the couple moved to New York City, where they lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. In the summer of 1915 they went to Provincetown, Massachusetts for the season, as did many other writers and artists from the Village. Cook was among the founders of the Provincetown Players that year, an important step in the development of American

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. The group would perform works by Cook and Glaspell, as well as the first plays of

and Edna St. Vincent Millay, among others. Cook would lead the Provincetown Players until 1919, at which time he took a sabbatical. Although he returned to the group in 1920, internal wrangling and his own frustration led to his effectively abandoning the cooperative.

Later years

In 1922, Cook and his family moved to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. They lived at Delphi, where they spent the summers camped in spruce huts high above the village on Mount Parnassus. After a short time, Cook began to wear '' fustanella'', the traditional Greek shepherd's attire. In 1924 he contracted a rare infectious disease from his pet dog and died. Cook's obituary appeared on the front page of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He is buried at Delphi in a small cemetery within hundreds of feet of the ruins of the famous Temple of Apollo, home of the oracle. So beloved was Cook by the locals that the Greek government allowed a stone from the temple foundation to be used as his grave marker. Years later his daughter

Nilla Cram Cook Nilla Cram Cook (December 21, 1908 – October 11, 1982), also known as Nila Nagini Devi, was an American writer, linguist, translator, and arts patron. Early life Nilla Cram Cook was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of playwright Georg ...

was buried beside him.

Partial bibliography

Plays *(1914) ''Suppressed Desires''; co-written with

. *(1915) ''Change Your Style''. *(1918) ''The Athenian Women''. *(1918) ''Tickless Time''; co-written with Susan Glaspell. *(1921) ''The Spring''. Novels *(1903) ''Roderick Taliaferro: A Story of Maximilian's Empire''. *(1911) ''The Chasm''. Poetry *(1925) ''Greek Coins''; published posthumously with essays by Floyd Dell, Edna Kenton, and Susan Glaspell. Non-fiction *(1899) ''Company B of Davenport''.

References

External links

"The Amateur: George Cram Cook" (a chapter from ''Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O'Neill'')
Eugene O'Neill website

University of Iowa
"Going Native": The Unusual Case of George Cram Cook
Natalia Vogeikoff
"Famous Iowans: George Cram Cook" (''Des Moines Register'')

"George Cram Cook"
biographical essay at Davenport Public Library
Cook's 1923 passport photo

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, George Cram 1873 births 1924 deaths Writers from Davenport, Iowa 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American novelists Modernist theatre Harvard University alumni Heidelberg University alumni Stanford University Department of English faculty Infectious disease deaths in Greece American male novelists American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Iowa

Biography

Later years

Partial bibliography

Further reading

References

External links