Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Time Magazine -- Eugene O'Neill -- March 13, 2024

Time, March 17, 1924

Eugene O'Neill was a realist playwright. 

Alta California, 15-June-1884

His father, James O'Neill, spent a significant portion of his career playing Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo. James O'Neill played the part over 6000 times between 1875 and the early Twentieth Century. He grew sick of the role and felt that it stunted his growth as an actor, but the public demanded that he play the Count.

After Eugene was expelled from Princeton, he joined the merchant marine. He fought with depression and alcoholism, but he gathered material for many of his plays. He joined the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Union.

Topeka State Journal, 21-October-1922


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Struck by tuberculosis, he spent time ashore in a sanitarium. He began to write plays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. This gave him enough money to buy a house in Danville, California. Tao House is a national historic monument. I have never visited there.

Many of his plays were successes on stage and went on to become movies.

New York Tribune, 03-November-1921

Casper Daily Tribune, 21-December-1923

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 16-November-1924

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