Eugene O’Neill (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

Biography

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born in the Barrett Hotel in New York City in 1888, son of James O’Neill, an actor celebrated for his portrayal of the count of Monte Cristo, and Ella Quinlan O’Neill, a sensitive woman who became a narcotics addict shortly after Eugene's birth. His older brother Jamie was Eugene's early idol; another brother, Edmund, had died in infancy, evoking a great guilt in his mother. As a child, Eugene toured much of the year with his parents and spent the summers in New London, Connecticut. At the age of seven, partly to protect him from...

[The entire page is 8009 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass