Editing Eugene O'Neill

{{Short description|American playwright  (1888–1953)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| image            = ONeill-Eugene-LOC.jpg
| birth_date       = {{birth date|mf=yes|1888|10|16}}
| birth_place      = New York City, U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1953|11|27|1888|10|16}}
| death_place      = [[Boston]], Massachusetts, U.S.
| notableworks = {{hlist|''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]''|''[[The Hairy Ape]]''|''[[Mourning Becomes Electra]]''|''[[Ah, Wilderness!]]''}}
| education        = [[Princeton University]]
| occupation       = Playwright
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Kathleen Jenkins|1909|1912|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Agnes Boulton]]|1918|1929|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Carlotta Monterey]]|1929}}}}
| children         = {{hlist|[[Eugene O'Neill Jr.|Eugene Jr.]]|Shane|[[Oona O'Neill|Oona]]}}
| relatives        = {{plainlist}}
* [[Charlie Chaplin]] (son in-law)
* [[Geraldine Chaplin]] (granddaughter)
* [[Oona Chaplin]] (great-granddaughter)
{{endplainlist}}
| parents          = [[James O'Neill (actor, born 1847)|James O'Neill]]<br />[[Ella O'Neill|Mary Ellen Quinlan]]
| awards           = [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1936)<br />[[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]] (1920, 1922, 1928, 1957)<br />[[Tony Award for Best Play]] (1957)
| signature        = Eugene O'Neill signature.svg
}}
'''Eugene Gladstone O'Neill''' (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of [[Realism (theatre)|realism]], earlier associated with [[Anton Chekhov|Chekhov]], [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]], and [[August Strindberg|Strindberg]]. The tragedy ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'' is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside [[Tennessee Williams]]'s ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' and [[Arthur Miller]]'s ''[[Death of a Salesman]]''.<ref>Harold Bloom (2007). Introduction. In: Bloom (Ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LuFU9ud-228C Tennessee Williams]'', updated edition. Infobase Publishing. p. 2.</ref> He was awarded the [[1936 Nobel Prize in Literature]]. O'Neill is also the only playwright to win four [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama|Pulitzer Prizes for Drama]].

O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, ultimately sliding into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (''[[Ah, Wilderness!]]'').<ref>''The New York Times'', August 25, 2003: "Next year Playwrights Theater will present an unproduced O'Neill comedy, ''Now I Ask You'', a comic spin on Ibsen's ''Hedda Gabler''."</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">The Eugene O'Neill Foundation newsletter: "''Now I Ask You'', along with ''The Movie Man'', ... is the only surviving comedy from O'Neill's early years."</ref> Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

==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.

==Career==
After returning to New York and living in poverty, O'Neill attempted suicide in 1912 in his room at Jimmy-the-Priest's boarding house and saloon, which — together with the Hell Hole — would one day become the setting for his play ''[[The Iceman Cometh]]''. That same year, he and his first wife Kathleen divorced, and he contracted [[tuberculosis]]. It was during his recovery at a [[sanatorium]] — which he came to regard as his "rebirth" — that he determined he would become a playwright. "I want to be an artist or nothing," he said.

After recovering from tuberculosis, he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'').<ref name=Dowling/> O'Neill had previously been employed by the ''New London Telegraph'', writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, O'Neill studied at [[Harvard University]] with [[George Pierce Baker]], who ran a famous course called “Workshop 47” that taught the fundamentals of playwriting, but left after one year.<ref name=Dowling/>

During the 1910s, O'Neill was a regular on the [[Greenwich Village]] literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably [[Communist Labor Party of America]] founder [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]]. O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer [[Louise Bryant]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dearborn|first=Mary V.|title=Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/queenofbohemiali00dear/page/52 52]|year=1996|isbn=978-0-395-68396-5|url=https://archive.org/details/queenofbohemiali00dear|url-access=registration}}</ref> O'Neill was portrayed by [[Jack Nicholson]] in the 1981 film ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'', about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by [[Diane Keaton]].
His involvement with the [[Provincetown Players]] began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration.<ref name=Dowling/> [[Susan Glaspell]] describes a reading of ''Bound East for Cardiff'' that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband [[George Cram Cook]]'s home on Commercial Street, adjacent to the wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took ''Bound East for Cardiff'' out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished."<ref>{{cite book|first=Susan|last=Glaspell|orig-year=1927|title=The Road to the Temple|publisher=Frederick A. Stokes|location=New York|edition=2nd|year=1941|page=255}}</ref> The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in [[Greenwich Village]]. Some of these early plays, such as ''The Emperor Jones'', began downtown and then moved to Broadway.<ref name=Dowling/>

[[File:Lewis_Wharf.jpg|thumb|left|O'Neill's first play, ''Bound East for Cardiff'', premiered at this theatre on a wharf in [[Provincetown, Massachusetts]].]]

In an early one-act play, ''The Web'', written in 1913, O'Neill first explored the darker themes that he later thrived on. <!--not a mistake--> Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays.<ref>"The Web by Eugene O'Neill."[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20p57f7.5 ''Sex for Sale: Six Progressive-Era Brothel Dramas''], by Katie N. Johnson, University of Iowa Press, IOWA CITY, 2015, pp. 15–29. ''JSTOR''.</ref> In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success.

O'Neill's first published play, ''[[Beyond the Horizon (play)|Beyond the Horizon]]'', opened on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]]. His first major hit was ''[[The Emperor Jones]]'', which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the [[U.S. occupation of Haiti]] that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election.<ref>{{cite book | last=Renda | first=Mary | title=Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism| url=https://archive.org/details/takinghaiti00mary | url-access=registration | pages=[https://archive.org/details/takinghaiti00mary/page/198 198–212]| location=Chapel Hill| publisher=University of North Carolina Press | year=2001| isbn=0-8078-4938-3}}</ref>  His best-known plays include ''[[Anna Christie]]'' (Pulitzer Prize 1922), ''[[Desire Under the Elms]]'' (1924), ''[[Strange Interlude]]'' (Pulitzer Prize 1928), ''[[Mourning Becomes Electra]]'' (1931), and his only well-known comedy, ''[[Ah, Wilderness!]]'',<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{cite news|first=Lawrence|last=van Gelder|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 25, 2003| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Arts Briefing|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/25/theater/arts-briefing.html|access-date=November 8, 2016}}</ref> a wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

O'Neill was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1935.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Eugene+O%27Neill&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> In 1936, O'Neill received the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] after he had been nominated that year by [[Henrik Schück]], member of the [[Swedish Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=8113|title=Nomination Database|publisher=Nobelprize.org|access-date=November 8, 2016}}</ref> O'Neill was profoundly influenced by the work of Swedish writer [[August Strindberg]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Eugene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsvCAgAAQBAJ&dq=o%27neill+%22profoundly+influenced%22+strindberg&pg=PA2 |title=The Emperor Jones |date=2013-02-20 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-15960-7 |language=en}}</ref> and upon receiving the Nobel Prize, dedicated much of his acceptance speech to describing Strindberg's influence on his work.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1936/oneill-speech.html |title= Banquet Speech |author= Eugene O'Neill |date= 10 December 1936 | publisher =The Nobel Foundation |access-date=12 July 2010}}</ref> In conversation with [[Russel Crouse]], O'Neill said that "the Strindberg part of the speech is no 'telling tale' to please the Swedes with a polite gesture. It is absolutely sincere. [...] And it's absolutely true that I am proud of the opportunity to acknowledge my debt to Strindberg thus publicly to his people".<ref name="Törnqvist">{{Cite book |last=Törnqvist |first=Egil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1whggReJx4C&dq=strindberg+o%27neill+immortality&pg=PA67 |title=Eugene O'Neill: A Playwright's Theatre |date=2004-01-14 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-1713-1 |language=en}}</ref> Before the speech was sent to [[Stockholm]], O'Neill read it to his friend [[Sophus Keith Winther]]. As he was reading, he suddenly interrupted himself with the comment: "I wish immortality were a fact, for then some day I would meet Strindberg". When Winther objected that "that would scarcely be enough to justify immortality", O'Neill answered quickly and firmly: "It would be enough for me".<ref name="Törnqvist"/>

After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play ''[[The Iceman Cometh]]'' was produced in 1946. The following year's ''[[A Moon for the Misbegotten]]'' failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}

[[File:TIMEMagazine17Mar1924.jpg|thumb|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' cover, March 17, 1924]]

He was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic [[mask]] from [[Theatre of ancient Greece|ancient Greek theatre]] and Japanese [[Noh]] theatre in some of his plays, such as ''[[The Great God Brown]]'' and ''[[Lazarus Laughed]].''<ref>{{cite book | last=Smith | first=Susan Harris | title=Masks in Modern Drama | pages=66–70, 106–08, 131–36, index S124 | location=Berkeley | publisher=University of California Press | year=1984 | isbn=0-520-05095-9}}</ref>

==Family life==

[[File:Eugene O'Neill 1936.jpg|thumb|right|O'Neill in the mid-1930s. He received the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1936]]
O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, [[Eugene O'Neill, Jr.]] (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met [[Agnes Boulton]], a successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in [[Point Pleasant, New Jersey]], after their marriage.<ref>Cheslow, Jerry. [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-living-point-pleasant-nj-borough-with-variety-boating.html "If You're Thinking of Living In/Point Pleasant, N.J.; A Borough With a Variety of Boating"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 9, 2003. Accessed January 25, 2015. "The most famous Point Pleasant resident was Eugene O'Neill, who married a local girl named Agnes Boulton and grumbled about being bored through the winter of 1918-19, as he lived rent free in a home owned by Agnes's parents."</ref> The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in [[Connecticut]] and [[Bermuda]] and had two children, Shane and [[Oona O'Neill|Oona]]—are described vividly in her 1958 memoir ''Part of a Long Story''. They divorced on July 2, 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and the children, for the actress [[Carlotta Monterey]]. O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife.<ref>{{cite news|title=Eugene O'Neill Wed to Miss Monterey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/07/24/archives/eugene-oneill-wed-to-miss-monterey-playwright-married-in-paris-to.html|page=9|work=The New York Times|date=July 24, 1929|access-date=November 13, 2008}}</ref>

In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the [[Loire Valley]] in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in [[Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher]], Indre-et-Loire. During the early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in [[Sea Island, Georgia]], at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to [[Danville, California]], in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, ''Tao House'', is today the [[Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site]].

In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to [[potassium bromide]], and the marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced.

[[File:Chaplin family 1961.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|The Chaplins and six of their eight children (Jane and [[Christopher Chaplin|Christopher]] are absent) in 1961. From left to right: [[Geraldine Chaplin|Geraldine]], [[Eugene Chaplin|Eugene]], [[Victoria Chaplin|Victoria]], [[Charlie Chaplin|Chaplin]], [[Oona O'Neill]], Annette, [[Josephine Chaplin|Josephine]] and [[Michael Chaplin (actor)|Michael]].]]In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter [[Oona O'Neill|Oona]] for marrying the English actor, director, and producer [[Charlie Chaplin]] when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again.<ref>Ranald, p. 118; Sheaffer, p. 623 and 658.</ref> Through his daughter, O'Neill had eight grandchildren whom he never met.

He also had distant relationships with his sons. [[Eugene O'Neill Jr.]], a [[Yale]] classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, ''Spithead,'' with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bermuda-online.org/seewark.htm|title=Bermuda's Warwick Parish}}</ref> In 1950 O'Neill joined [[The Lambs]], the famed theater club.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Child
! Date of birth
! Date of death
|-
| [[Eugene O'Neill Jr.]]
| May 5, 1910
| September 25, 1950
|-
| Shane O'Neill
| October 30, 1919
| June 23, 1977
|-
| [[Oona O'Neill]]
| May 14, 1925
| September 27, 1991
|}

==Illness and death==
[[File:EugeneONeilGrave.jpg|thumb|Grave of Eugene O'Neill]]
After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe [[Parkinson's disease|Parkinson's]]-like tremor in his hands that made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he tried [[Dictation machine|dictation]] but found himself unable to compose that way.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a collection of works he called "the Cycle" chronicling American life spanning from 1755 to 1932. Only two of the eleven plays O'Neill proposed, ''[[A Touch of the Poet]]'' and ''[[More Stately Mansions]]'', were completed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Stephen A. |title=Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-300-07676-2 |location=New Haven and London |pages=394; 481 |language=English}}</ref> As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, ''[[The Iceman Cometh]]'', ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'', and ''[[A Moon for the Misbegotten]]'', which he completed in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. The book "''Love and Admiration and Respect": The O'Neill-Commins Correspondence''" includes an extended account written by Saxe Commins, O'Neill's publisher, in which he talks of "snatches of dialogue" between Carlotta and O'Neill over the disappearance of a group of manuscripts that O'Neill had brought with him from San Francisco. "When the table was cleared I learned the cause of the tension; the manuscripts were lost. They had disappeared mysteriously during the day and there was no clue to their whereabouts."<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Eugene ONeill stamp.png|upright=1.5|thumb|right|O'Neill stamp issued in 1967]]

O'Neill died at the Sheraton Hotel (now [[Boston University]]'s [[Shelton Hall (Boston University)|Kilachand Hall]]) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at age 65. As he was dying, he whispered: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheaffer|first=Louis|title=O'Neill: Son and Artist|url=https://archive.org/details/oneillsonartist00shea|url-access=registration|publisher=Little, Brown & Co.|date=1973|isbn=0-316-78337-4}}</ref> He is interred in the [[Forest Hills Cemetery]] in [[Boston]]'s [[Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts|Jamaica Plain]] neighborhood.

In 1956, Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'' to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Long-Days-Journey-into-Night-play-by-ONeill|title=Long Day's Journey into Night {{!}} play by O'Neill|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref> It is widely considered his finest play. Other posthumously published works include ''[[A Touch of the Poet]]'' (1958) and ''[[More Stately Mansions]]'' (1967).

In 1967, the [[United States Postal Service]] honored O'Neill with a [[Prominent Americans series]] (1965–1978) $1 postage stamp.

In 2000, a team of researchers studying O'Neill's autopsy report concluded that he died of [[cerebellar cortical atrophy]], a rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-apr-13-me-19213-story.html#:~:text=Nobel%20Prize%2Dwinning%20playwright%20Eugene,New%20England%20Journal%20of%20Medicine. Los Angeles Times, 13 April 2000]. Retrieved September 10, 2020</ref>

== Legacy ==
In [[Warren Beatty]]'s 1981 film ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'', O'Neill is portrayed by [[Jack Nicholson]], who was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]] for his performance.

George C. White founded the [[Eugene O'Neill Theater Center|Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center]] in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964.<ref>{{cite web|title=Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Website|url=http://theoneill.org|access-date=March 4, 2014}}</ref>

Eugene O'Neill is a member of the [[American Theater Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theaterhalloffame.org/members.html#O|title=Theater Hall of Fame members}}</ref>

O'Neill is referenced by [[Upton Sinclair]] in ''[[The Cup of Fury (book)|The Cup of Fury]]'' (1956), Dianne Wiest's character in ''[[Bullets Over Broadway]]'' (1994), by [[J.K. Simmons]]' character in ''[[Whiplash (2014 film)|Whiplash]]'' (2014), by [[Tony Stark]] in ''[[Avengers: Age of Ultron]]'' (2015), specifically ''Long Day's Journey into Night'', and ''Long Day's Journey into Night'' is also referenced by [[Patrick Wilson|Patrick Wilson's]] character in ''[[Purple Violets]]'' (2007).

O'Neill is referred to in [[Moss Hart]]'s 1959 book ''[[Act One (book)|Act One]]'', later a Broadway play.

==Museums and collections==
O'Neill's home in New London, [[Monte Cristo Cottage]], was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the [[Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site]] in 1976.

[[Connecticut College]] maintains the [[Louis Sheaffer]] Collection, consisting of material collected by the O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at [[Yale University]]. The [[Eugene O'Neill Theater Center]] in [[Waterford, Connecticut]], fosters the development of new plays under his name.

There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The [[Eugene O'Neill Theatre]] has housed musicals and plays such as ''[[Yentl (play)|Yentl]]'', ''[[Annie (musical)|Annie]]'', ''[[Grease (musical)|Grease]]'', ''[[M. Butterfly]]'', ''[[Spring Awakening (musical)|Spring Awakening]]'', and ''[[The Book of Mormon (musical)|The Book of Mormon]]''.

==Work==
{{See also|Category:Plays by Eugene O'Neill}}
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=50%}}

===Full-length plays===
* ''Bread and Butter'', 1914
* ''Servitude'', 1914
* ''The Personal Equation'', 1915
* ''Now I Ask You'', 1916
* ''[[Beyond the Horizon (play)|Beyond the Horizon]]'', 1918 - Pulitzer Prize, 1920
* ''[[The Straw (Eugene O'Neill)|The Straw]]'', 1919
* ''[[Anna Christie#Productions|Chris Christophersen]]'', 1919
* ''Gold'', 1920
* ''[[Anna Christie]]'', 1920 - Pulitzer Prize, 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 (play)|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 (play)|Dynamo]]'', 1929
* ''[[Mourning Becomes Electra]]'', 1931
* ''[[Ah, Wilderness!]]'', 1933
* ''Days Without End'', 1933
* ''[[More Stately Mansions]]'', written 1937-1938, first performed 1967
* ''[[The Iceman Cometh]]'', written 1939, published 1940, first performed 1946
* ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'', written 1941, first performed 1956; Pulitzer Prize 1957
* ''[[A Moon for the Misbegotten]]'', written 1941–1943, first performed 1947
* ''[[A Touch of the Poet]]'', completed in 1942, first performed 1958
{{col-break}}

===One-act plays===
The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship ''Glencairn''—filmed together as ''[[The Long Voyage Home]]'':
* ''Bound East for Cardiff'', 1916
* ''[[In the Zone (play)|In the Zone]]'', 1917
* ''The Long Voyage Home'', 1917
* ''Moon of the Caribbees'', 1918
Other one-act plays include:
* ''A Wife for a Life'', 1913
* ''The Web'', 1913
* ''Thirst'', 1913
* ''Recklessness'', 1913
* ''Warnings'', 1913
* ''Fog'', 1914
* ''Abortion'', 1914
* ''The Movie Man:  A Comedy'', 1914<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Title as in original typescript and title page of Modern Library edition</ref>
* ''The Sniper'', 1915
* ''Before Breakfast'', 1916
* ''Ile'', 1917
* ''The Rope'', 1918
* ''Shell Shock'', 1918
* ''The Dreamy Kid'', 1918
* ''Where the Cross Is Made'', 1918
* ''Exorcism'', 1919<ref name="Ex">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/yale-u-library-acquires-lost-play-by-eugene-oneill/29541?sid=at | title=Exorcism | publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education | work=Yale U. Library Acquires Lost Play by Eugene O'Neill | date=October 19, 2011 | access-date=October 22, 2011}} (The play, set in 1912, is based on O'Neill's suicide attempt from an overdose of barbiturates in a Manhattan rooming house. After its premiere in 1920, O'Neill canceled the production and, it had been thought, destroyed all copies.)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/17/exorcism-eugene-oneill | title=Exorcism | magazine=The New Yorker | date=October 10, 2011 | access-date=January 6, 2024}}</ref>
* ''[[Hughie]]'', written 1941, first performed 1959
{{col-end}}

===Other works===
* ''Tomorrow'', 1917. A short-story published in ''The Seven Arts'', Vol. II, No. 8 in June 1917.<ref>{{cite book|last1=O'Neill|first1=Eugene|title=The Seven Arts|edition=June 1917|location=New York|publisher=The Seven Arts Publishing Co.|year=1917|url=https://www.commoncrowbooks.com/pages/books/z07534/james-oppenhiem-randolph-bourne-with-sherwood-anderson-john-butler-yeats-eugene-oneill-peter/the-seven-arts-vol-ii-no-8-june-1917|access-date=March 5, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
* ''S.O.S.'', 1918. A short-story based on his 1913 one-act play ''Warnings''.
* ''The Ancient Mariner'', 1923, a dramatic arrangement of [[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner|Coleridge's poem]].
* ''The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog'', 1940. Written to comfort Carlotta as their "child" Blemie was approaching his death in December 1940.<ref>{{cite book|last1=O'Neill|first1=Eugene|last2=Yorinks|first2=Adrienne|title=The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog|edition=First|location=New York|publisher=Henry Holt and Co|year=1999|isbn=0-8050-6170-3|url=http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm|access-date=November 16, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223130954/http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm|archive-date=February 23, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''Poems: 1912-1944'', published 1980.
* ''The Calms of Capricorn'', unfinished play, published in 1983.<ref>Black, Steven A. The Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 19, no. 1/2, 1995, pp. 150–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784556. Accessed 29 Dec. 2023.</ref>
* ''The Unfinished Plays'': Notes for ''The Visit of Malatesta'', ''The Last Conquest'' and ''Blind Alley Guy'', published in 1988.<ref>Wilkins, Frederick C. The Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 13, no. 1, 1989, pp. 77–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784342. Accessed 29 Dec. 2023.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[The Eugene O'Neill Award]]
* [[List of residences of American writers]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==

===Editions of O'Neill===
* {{cite book | last1=O'Neill | first1=Eugene | last2=Bogard |first2=Travis | title=Complete Plays 1913–1920 | series=[[The Library of America]] | volume=40 | location=New York | publisher=Literary Classics | year=1988 | isbn=0-940450-48-8 }}
* {{cite book | last1=O'Neill | first1=Eugene | last2=Bogard | first2=Travis | title=Complete Plays 1920–1931 | series=[[The Library of America]] | volume=41 | location=New York | publisher=Literary Classics | year=1988 | isbn=0-940450-49-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/completeplays19200onei }}
* {{cite book | last1=O'Neill | first1=Eugene | last2=Bogard |first2=Travis | title=Complete Plays 1932–1943 | series=[[The Library of America]] | volume=42 | location=New York | publisher=Literary Classics | year=1988 | isbn=0-940450-50-X }}

===Scholarly works===
* {{cite book| author=Black, Stephen A.| title=Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy| publisher=Yale University press| year=2002| isbn=0-300-09399-3}}
*Bryan, George B. and [[Wolfgang Mieder]]. 1995. ''The Proverbial Eugene O'Neill. An Index to Proverbs in the Works of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
* {{cite journal | author=Clark, Barrett H.|date=November 1932| title=Aeschylus and O'Neill | journal=The English Journal | volume=XXI| issue=9| pages=699–710 | doi=10.2307/804473 | jstor=804473 }}
* {{cite book| author=Clark, Barrett H. | title=Eugene O'Neill: The Man and His Plays| publisher=Dover Publications, Inc. New York| year=1926}}
* {{cite book| author=Dowling, Robert M. | title=Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts | publisher=Yale University Press | year=2014 | isbn=978-0-300-17033-7}}
*{{cite book| editor=Floyd, Virginia| title=Eugene O'Neill: A World View| publisher=Frederick Unger| year=1979| isbn=0-8044-2204-4| url=https://archive.org/details/eugeneoneill00ehis}}
*{{cite book| author=Floyd, Virginia| title=The Plays of Eugene O'Neill: A New Assessment| publisher=Frederick Unger| year=1985| isbn=0-8044-2206-0| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/playsofeugeneone0000floy}}
* {{cite book | author1=Gelb, Arthur | author2=Gelb, Barbara | title=O'Neill: Life with Monte Christo | publisher=Applause/Penguin Putnam | year=2000 | isbn=0-399-14912-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/oneilllifewithmo00gelb }}
* {{cite book | author1=Gelb, Arthur | author2=Gelb, Barbara | title=By Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O'Neill | publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons | location=New York | year=2016 | isbn=978-0-399-15911-4 }}
* {{cite book | author=Sheaffer, Louis | title=O'Neill Volume I: Son and Playwright | publisher=Cooper Square Press | year=2002 |orig-year=1968 | isbn=0-8154-1243-6}}
* {{cite book| author=Sheaffer, Louis | title=O'Neill Volume II: Son and Artist | publisher=Cooper Square Press| year=1999 |orig-year=1973 | isbn= 0-8154-1244-4}}
* {{cite book | author=Tiusanen, Timo | title=O'Neill's Scenic Images | type=Ph.D. thesis, University of Helsinki | location=Princeton | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=1968 | lccn=68-20882 }}
* {{cite book| author=Wainscott, Ronald H.| title=Staging O'Neill: The Experimental Years| publisher=Yale University Press| year=1988| isbn=0-300-04152-7| url=https://archive.org/details/stagingoneillexp00wain}}
* {{cite book| author=Winther, Sophus Keith | title=Eugene O'Neill: A Critical Study| location=New York | publisher=Random House| year=1934 | oclc=900356}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=Category:Eugene O'Neill |n=no |q=Eugene O'Neill |s=Author:Eugene O'Neill |b=no |v=Collaborative_play_writing/Warnings}}

;Digital collections
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/eugene-oneill}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1359| name=Eugene O'Neill}}
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#letterO Works by Eugene O'Neill] at [http://gutenberg.net.au Project Gutenberg Australia]
* {{OL author}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Eugene O'Neill |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1785}}
* [https://wikilivres.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill Works by Eugene O'Neill]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} (public domain in Canada)

;Physical collections
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00537 Eugene O'Neill Collection.] [[Harry Ransom Center]].
*[[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.eopapers|Eugene O'Neill Papers]]. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.oneilladd|Eugene O'Neill Papers Addition]]. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
* [http://archives.nypl.org/the/21429 Carlotta O'Neill notebook of letters and photographs, 1927-1954], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]]. The notebook contains handwritten transcriptions by Carlotta O'Neill of letters and inscriptions to her from her husband, Eugene O'Neill, and photographs, mostly portraits of Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill.
* [https://aspace.wustl.edu/repositories/6/resources/459 Harley Hammerman Collection on Eugene O'Neill]. Julian Edison Department of Special Collections, Washington University in St. Louis.
* [https://aspace.conncoll.edu/repositories/2/resources/76 Louis Sheaffer Collection of Eugene O'Neill]. [https://www.conncoll.edu/library-information-technology/libraries/libraries-locations/linda-lear-center-for-special-collections-and-arc/ Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives], Connecticut College.

;Analysis and editorials
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414002519/http://www.bu.edu/today/node/9594 Haunted by Eugene O'Neill]—Article in ''BU Today'', September 29, 2009
* [http://mcnyblog.org/2012/11/27/eugene-oneill-the-sailor-the-sickness-the-stage/ Eugene O'Neill: the sailor, the sickness, the stage] from the [http://mcnyblog.org/ Museum of the City of New York Collections blog]
* [http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Iceman.html#Top The Iceman Cometh: A Study Guide]

;Seminal dissertations by scholars
* [https://eoneill.com/library/dissertations.htm]
* Eugene O’Neill e Lars Norén: “A Swedish-American Kinship”  by Anna Airoldi
* Postmodern Considerations of Nietzstchean Perspectivism in Selected Works of Eugene O'Neill by Eric Mathew Levin
* The Pipe Dreams and Primitivism: Eugene O'Neill and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity by Donald P. Gagnon
* The Discovery of the Self in Eugene O'Neill's ''The Emperor Jones'' and ''The Iceman Cometh'' and Joseph Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' and "To-morrow": A Comparative Study by Mohamed Amine Dekkiche
* "Darker Brother" in Stage-Center: Eugene O'Neill's Quest for Racial Equity in Three Decades (1913-1939) of American Drama by Shahed Ahmed

;External entries
* {{IBDB name}}
* {{IOBDB name|3492}}
* {{IMDb name|642156}}
* {{Playbill person|eugene-oneill-vault-0000013137}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120411195833/http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/13137/Eugene-ONeill archive])

;Other sources
* [http://www.eoneill.com/ Eugene O'Neill official website]
* [http://www.casagenotta.com/ Casa Genotta official website]
* [http://www.nps.gov/euon/ Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oneill/ American Experience - Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on PBS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201150557/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oneill/ |date=February 1, 2017 }}
* {{Nobelprize}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ach}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Warren S. Stone]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of covers of Time magazine (1920s)|Cover of ''Time'' magazine]]
|years=March 17, 1924}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Raymond Poincaré]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Eugene O'Neill}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1926-1950}}
{{1936 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{PulitzerPrize DramaAuthors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Eugene}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1953 deaths]]
[[Category:Eugene O'Neill]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights|O'Neill, Eugene]]
[[Category:American agnostics]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:American writers of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Expressionist dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Industrial Workers of the World members]]
[[Category:Irish-American history]]
[[Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners]]
[[Category:Modernist theatre]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[Category:People from Danville, California]]
[[Category:People from Greenwich Village]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]
[[Category:Writers from New London, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from Provincetown, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from Ridgefield, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People with Parkinson's disease]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners]]
[[Category:Tony Award winners]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Members of The Lambs Club]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Writers of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Chaplin family]]