Eugene O’Neill

The Tragedy of Eugene O’Neill (Look Magazine, 1959)

In 1946, a literary statistician ascertained that, in the world of O’Neill plays, there had been 12 murders, eight suicides, 22 other deaths and seven cases of insanity


To read the attached biographical essay is to understand that O’Neill did not become America’s premiere tragedian by simply reading about the disasters in the lives of others; his entire life was a tragedy. In his wake were alcoholic, suicidal children and numerous unloved wives.

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What’s Next for Eugene O’Neill? (Stage Magazine, 1935)

Stage editor Hiram Motherwell (1888 – 1945) examined the meteoric rise of playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) and asked, What can he do next?

Eugene O’Neill is now forty-seven. His plays have just been enshrined in the definitive edition, handsome, ingratiating, expensive. They are probably more widely discussed than those of any other living playwright. They have been produced in almost every city from Moscow west to Tokyo. They have been translated into more languages. And yet it is evident that O’Neil, standing on the crest of this superb eminence, has completed a cycle; come to a momentous turning in the path his creative genius has followed. Where will the path lead?

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