Editing Eugene O'Neill (section)

==Early life==

[[File:Eugene ONeill birthplace plaque NYC.jpg|upright=.75|thumb|left|Birthplace plaque (1500 Broadway, northeast corner of 43rd and Broadway, New York City), presented by [[Circle in the Square Theatre|Circle in the Square]]]]

O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888, in a hotel, the Barrett House, on what was then Longacre Square (now [[Times Square]]) in New York City.<ref name=nyt1957>{{cite news|first=Arthur|last=Gelb|title=O'Neill's Birthplace Is Marked By Plaque at Times Square Site|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/10/17/archives/oneills-birthplace-is-marked-by-plaque-at-times-square-site-oneills.html|page=35|work=The New York Times|date=October 17, 1957|access-date= November 13, 2008}}</ref> A commemorative plaque was first dedicated there in 1957.<ref name=nyt1957/><ref>{{cite news|author-link1=Robert Simonson|last=Simonson|first=Robert|date=July 23, 2012|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/ask-playbillcom-a-question-about-eugene-oneills-birthplace-in-a-broadway-hotel-com-195890|title=Ask Playbill.com: A Question About Eugene O'Neill's Birthplace, in a Broadway Hotel|newspaper=Playbill|access-date=November 8, 2016}}</ref> The site is now occupied by [[1500 Broadway]], which houses offices, shops and the [[ABC Studios]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Kathy|date=April 21, 2009|url=http://www.broadway.com/buzz/5778/the-tragic-roots-of-eugene-oneills-desire-under-the-elms|title=The Tragic Roots of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms|publisher=Broadway.com|access-date=November 8, 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of Eugene O'Neill as a child.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of O'Neill as a child, c. 1893]]

He was the son of [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrant actor [[James O'Neill (actor, born 1847)|James O'Neill]] and [[Ella O'Neill|Mary Ellen Quinlan]], who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who was her third son.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Londré|first=Felicia|date=2016|title=Eugene O'neill: A Life in Four Acts by Robert M. Dowling, and: Eugene O'neill: The Contemporary Reviews ed. by Jackson R. Bryer and Robert M. Dowiling (review)|journal=Theatre History Studies|volume=35|pages=351–353|doi=10.1353/ths.2016.0027|s2cid=193596557}}</ref> Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to [[College of Mount Saint Vincent|St. Aloysius Academy for Boys]], a Catholic boarding school in the [[Riverdale, Bronx|Riverdale]] section of the Bronx.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://amsaw.org/amsaw-ithappenedinhistory-101604-oneill.html|title=Eugene O'Neill|publisher=American Society of Authors and Writers}}</ref> In 1900, he became a day student at the [[De La Salle Institute (Manhattan)|De La Salle Institute]] on [[59th Street (Manhattan)|59th Street]] in Manhattan.<ref name=Dowling>Dowling, Robert M., [https://books.google.com/books?id=EOiuBAAAQBAJ&dq=Eugene+O%27Neill+%2B+De+La+Salle+Institute+%28Manhattan%29&pg=PA43 ''Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts'', Yale University Press, 2014] {{ISBN|9780300170337}}</ref>

The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the [[Monte Cristo Cottage]] in [[New London, Connecticut]]. He also briefly attended [[Betts Academy]] in Stamford.<ref>[http://www.stamfordhistory.org/pp_ed.htm "Spelled Freedom"] From: Stamford Past & Present, 1641 – 1976 The Commemorative Publication of the Stamford Bicentennial Committee (Stamford Historical Society)</ref> He attended [[Princeton University]] for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes,<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Manheim|editor1-first=Michael|title=The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neil|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|date=1998|page=97}}</ref> been suspended for "conduct code violations",<ref>{{cite book|last=Bloom|first=Steven F.|title=Student Companion to Eugene O'Neil|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport|date=2007|page=3}}</ref> or "for breaking a window",<ref>{{cite book|last=Abbotson|first=Susan C.W.|title=Masterpieces of 20th-Century American Drama|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport|date=2005|page=8}}</ref> or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor [[Woodrow Wilson]]", the future president of the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Neill|first=Eugene|title=Ah, Wilderness!|publisher=Hirschgraben-Verlag|location=Frankfurt am Main|date=1959|page=3|title-link=Ah, Wilderness!}}</ref>

[[File:Eugene O'Neill sculpture, New London.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of O'Neill as a boy, sitting and writing, overlooking the harbor of [[New London, Connecticut]]]]

O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression, alcoholism and despair. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-sailor-who-became-americas.html|title=The Sailor Who Became "America's Shakespeare"|author=Patrick Murfin|publisher=Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout|access-date=November 8, 2016|date=October 16, 2012}}</ref> O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who [[suicide|drank himself to death]] at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater.