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Eugene Gladstone O'Neill is born
Eugene O'Neill is born in Longacre Square, New York City to Mary Ellen (known as Ella) and James O'Neill. -
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His boarding school years
Eugene attended the St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, then De La Salle Institute for 2 years, and then Betts Academy, a prep school in Stamford, CT. -
Briefly attends Princeton University
In 1906, O'Neill enrolled at Princeton University, but his heart wasn't in his studies, and he was either dismissed for missing too many classes or left after only 10 months at the school.
https://www.biography.com/people/eugene-oneill-9428728 -
Tuberculosis
In 1912, Eugene O'Neill battled tuberculosis at the Gaylord Farm Sanitarium in Wallingford, CT. -
A year at Harvard: 1914-1915
A theatre critic recommended he study with George Pierce Baker at Harvard University. -
Marriages
After leaving Princeton he was briefly married to Kathleen Jenkins with whom he shares one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. In 1916, he married for a second time to Agnes Boulton, with whom he shares 2 children, Shane and Oona. (Fun Fact: Oona married Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and he was 54. They had 8 children together.) -
Play: Bound East for Cardiffhis one-act sea play, Bound East for Cardiff, was produced in Provincetown, MA. This play would be O'Neill's New York debut when the Provincetown group formed the Playwright's Theatre in Greenwich Village.
Synopsis: In mid-Atlantic on the British tramp steamer Glencairn, the seaman Yank has been injured in a fall and lies moaning in his bunk. His friend, the Irishman Driscoll, and the other seamen encourage him with rough expressions of good will, but Yank realizes that he is dying. Since he fears to be alone, Driscoll remains with him, and they discuss old adventures and their mean life at sea. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095520835 -
He begins to work as a playwright
He writes Beyond the Horizon, for which he wins the Pulitzer Prize. It was first produced at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. -
Play: The Emperor Jones
Synopsis: The Emperor Jones tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, and later escapes to a small, backward Caribbean island where he sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the jungle in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Jones -
Play: Anna Christie
Brief synopsis of the play with link to citation.
Pulitzer Prize Winner. -
Play: The Hairy Ape
Brief synopsis of the play with link to citation. -
Play: Desire Under the Elms
Brief synopsis of the play with link to citation. -
Third Marriage
In 1929, O'Neill marries Carlotta Monterey. -
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1936 was awarded to Eugene Gladstone O'Neill "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy."
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1936. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Sun. 17 Mar 2019. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/summary/ -
Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature
Eugene O'Neill received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1937. During the selection process in 1936, the Nobel Committee for Literature decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then applied. Eugene O'Neill therefore received his Nobel Prize for 1936 one year later, in 1937. -
Eugene O'Neill dies in Boston, MA.
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Play: Long Day's Journey into Night
O'Neill completed Long Day's Journey Into Night in the early 1940s, but he refused to have this autobiographical play produced until long after his death. Around this same time, he had a falling out with daughter Oona; he chose to end his relationship with Oona after she married actor Charlie Chaplin. https://www.biography.com/people/eugene-oneill-9428728
