Eugene O’Neill was one of the greatest playwrights in American history. He was born on 16th October, 1888, in New York City. He was the son of Mary Quinlan and the romantic actor James O’Neill. Eugene spent the first seven years of his life touring with his father’s theatre company.
He began to write plays in 1913. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. His masterpiece, ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’ is at the apex of a long string of great plays, including ‘Beyond the Horizon’, ‘Anna Christie’, ‘Strange Interlude’, ‘Ah! Wilderness, ‘Desire Under the Elms’, and ‘The Iceman Cometh’.
The drama ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’ is often numbered on the short list of the finest American plays in the 20th century.
O’Neill’s plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular, and involve characters on the fringes of society.
O’Neill’s final years were spent estranged from much of the literary community and his family. Though he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1936, most of his later works were not produced until after his death. He died on 27th November, 1953.
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