Tanvir's Blog

Eugene O'Neill

Foremost American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature

Profile

Full Name: Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
AKA: Gene, Eugene O'Neill
Date of Birth: October 16, 1888
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Zodiac Sign: Libra
Physique: Slender
Height: 5 ft 11 in
Eye Colour: Dark
Nationality: American
Death: November 27, 1953
Place of Death: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Last Words: “I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room – and God damn it – died in a hotel room.”
Cause of Death: Bronchial Pneumonia
Place of Burial: Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Father: James O'Neill (1847-1920)
Mother: Ella O'Neill (1857-1922)
Siblings:

1. Brother-James O'Neill, Jr. (1878-1923)

2. Brother-Edmund Dantes Burke O'Neill (1883- 1885)

3. Half brother-Alfred Hamilton O'Neill (1874-?)

Spouse(s):

1. Kathleen Jenkins (m. 1909–1912) (1 child)
2. Agnes Boulton (m. 1918; div. 1929) (2 children)
3. Carlotta Monterey (m. 1929; till his death 1953)

Children: 03

1. Son- Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950)

2. Son- Shane Rudraighe O'Neill (1918–1977)

3. Daughter- Oona Chaplin O'Neill (1925–1991)

Alma Mater: Harvard University, St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, De La Salle Institute, Princeton University, Betts Academy
Known for: bringing revolutionary changes in the American theatre
Criticized for: writing plays depicting interracial marriage, equality of the sexes, infanticide, and infidelity and abortion
Influences: Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), August Strindberg (1849–1912), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Emma Goldman (1869–1940), and Carl Jung (1875–1961)
Influenced: Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), Arthur Miller (1915 –2005)

Awards

1920: Pulitzer Prize for Beyond the Horizon

1922: Pulitzer Prize for Anna Christie

1928: Pulitzer Prize for Strange Interlude

1937: Nobel Prize in Literature

1957: *Pulitzer Prize for Long Day's Journey into Night

1957: *Tony Award for Long Day's Journey into Night (Best Author)

1957: *Tony Award for Long Day's Journey into Night (Best Play)

* Posthumous recognition

Quotes

“None of us can help the things life has done to us. They’re done before you realize it, and once they’re done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you’d like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever.” Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night

Major Themes

The conflict between idealism and materialism
Death
Guilt
Fury
Forgiveness
Repentance
Greek mythology
Human psychology
Social Criticism

Notable Works:

Bread and Butter, 1914
Servitude, 1914
The Personal Equation, 1915
Now I Ask You, 1916
Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize in 1920
The Straw, 1919
Chris Christophersen, 1919
Gold, 1920
Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize in 1922
The Emperor Jones, 1920
Diff'rent, 1921
The First Man, 1922
The Hairy Ape, 1922
The Fountain, 1923
Marco Millions, 1923–25
All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
Welded, 1924
Desire Under the Elms, 1924
Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
The Great God Brown, 1926
Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
Dynamo, 1929
Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
Days Without End, 1933
The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published in 1940, first performed in 1946
Hughie, written in 1941, first performed in 1959
Long Day's Journey Into Night, written in 1941, first performed in 1956 - Pulitzer Prize in 1957
A Moon for the Misbegotten, written between 1941–1943, first performed in 1947
A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed in 1958
More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed in 1967
The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983

Did You Know?

His father, James O'Neill was a famous late 19th century touring actor. Throughout his life James kept touring and performed his most popular role of The Count of Monte Cristo over 5,000 times.
O'Neill was born in a hotel and also died in a hotel.
He spent much of his childhood either in hotel rooms or on trains.
Many critics consider him the father of the modern American theatre.
He was one of the first American playwrights to incorporate realism and include American colloquial speech in plays.
In 1936 he became the first American dramatist to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
In 1909 he secretly married Kathleen Jenkins, which he concealed untill Kathleen's pregnancy. Kathleen gave birth to Eugene O'Neill, Jr.
After his divorce with his first wife O'Neill married Agnes Boultont in 1918. The couple had two children: Shane and Oona.
Having separated from his second wife O'Neill married Carlotta Montere in 1929.
After O'Neill's birth his mother was addicted with morpheme, which the doctor prescribed her to alleviate the pain.
At his 14th year O'Neill was informed by his family that his birth caused all the miseries to his mother. The information greatly affected his mind and O'Neill resorted to alcohol, narcotics, and prostitutes to soothe this sense of guilt.
O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin, who was only six months junior to him.
Although O'Neill clearly instructed not to publish the autobiographical play Long Day's Journey Into Night until 25 years after his demise, Carlotta opted to publish it in 1956.
In 1912 O'Neill attempted a failed suicide.
He contracted tuberculosis In 1912.
Due to a severe Parkinson-like tremor in his hand, O'Neill could not write for the last 10 years of his life.
His posthumously published play Long Day's Journey into Night earned him two Pulitzer prizes.