Introduction

Eugene O'Neill

A playwright who might best be dubbed “The Master of Misery,” Eugene O’Neill helped bring real human pain to the American stage in the first half of the twentieth century. His largely autobiographical works reflected a sad life: two of his children committed suicide, his brother drank himself to death, and O’Neill himself battled alcoholism for years. Ironically, some of his plays did not attain classic status until after O’Neill was dead. The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for the Misbegotten, and the posthumously released Long Day’s Journey Into Night were “rediscovered” by director Jose Quintero, whose productions featuring Jason Robards helped cement their reputation.

Essential Facts

1. O’Neill has the unique distinction of both being born and dying in a hotel room. His life ended in a building that is now a dormitory on the Boston University campus (Shelton Hall, Room 401). Superstitious students attribute many odd or inexplicable events to his ghost.
2. O’Neill disowned his daughter, Oona, after she married Charlie Chaplin. She was barely 18 years old when they wed and her new husband was 54, the same age as her father.
3. O’Neill came by his theatrical interests honestly. His father, James, was an actor and made a career out of playing the lead in a stage version of Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.
4. Despite O’Neill being repeatedly hailed as the “Father of American Realism,” his early plays (such as The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape) were expressionistic.
5. Long Day’s Journey Into Night was first performed in 1956, three years after O’Neill’s death. His widow Carlotta, who had received the play as an anniversary gift in the 1940s, disregarded her late husband’s wishes to wait 25 years after his death to publish it.