In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Book Reviews 129 volume does not extend previous criticism, it may be valuable as a stimulus to further explorations. STEVEN H. GALE. MISSOURI SOUTHERN STATE COLLEGE JUDITH E. BARLOW. Final Acts: The Creation o/Three Late O'Neill Plays. Athens: The University of Georgia Press 1985. Pp. 215. $22.50. The fruitful process of manuscript analysis of the composition of O'Neill's plays has now begun. O'Neill's previous critics and biographers have had access to a poniOD of the playwright's unpublished materials housed at Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Dartmouth, C.W. Post College, The New York Public Library, The Library of Congress. The Museum of the City of New York, and elsewhere. But until recently the most significant depository of O'Neill materials at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has been subject to the highly restrictive terms of the O'Neill estate. Only in the past few years have scholars been granted access to important manuscripts in the collection, while other materials (pertaining to O'Neill's legendary unfinished "Cycle") still remain dosed. As a result, students of O'Neill have welcomed the recent publication of the playwright's Poems,' 1912.1944 (New Haven, 1980), his scenario for the unwritten The Calms of Capricorn (New Haven, 1981), and his Work Diary: 1924-1943 (New Haven, 1981), all edited by Donald Gallup, former curator at the Beinecke. Two equally important volumes appeared in 1982: O'Neill's previously unpublished Chris Christophersen:A Play in Three Acts (Six Scenes), with a foreword by Leslie Eric Comens (New York), and "The Theatre We Worked For": The Letters of Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan, edited by Jackson Bryer, with introductory essays by Travis Bogard (New Haven). Bryer and Bogard are now editing a more comprehensive collection of O'Neill's letters. Until now the most significant treatment of unpUblished materials has been Virginia floyd's Eugene O'Neill at Work: Newly Released Ideas for Plays (New York, 1981). This valuable compendium includes summaries of, and extracts from , many of O'Neill's drafts, notes, and scenarios, including those for his late masterpieces. Now in Filial Acts: The Creatioll of Three Late O'Neill Plays, Judith Barlow extends our knowledge of O'Neill's composition process. While Hoyd evaluates O'Neill's notes and outlines, Barlow in addition works closely with the manuscripts and typescripts. Although she is not the first to see the manuscripts, Barlow's is certainly the most . comprehensive discussion of O'Neill's revisions for The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Il1to Night , and A Moonfor the (vlisbegotten. She is careful to credit Floyd, but occasionally Barlow disagrees with her. Therefore, her book should be considered an indispensable extension of Eugene O'Neill at Work. Moreover, in its own right, Final Acts is an important addition to O'Neill scholarship, a lively, scrupulous production, and a model for future manuscript studies of O'Nei11's plays. The book contains a number ofagreeable surprises. Ofcourse, we know the outcomes 130 Book Reviews of O'Neill's revision process because we all have read or seen the final versions. But Barlow has interesting observations to make concerning O'Neill's habits of revision, and she provides insights to the nature of his creative choices. O'Neill appears here as a shrewder, more meticulous craftsman than some may have supposed. He usually began with an outline or a scenario, a list of characters, notes, fragments of dialogue, and memoranda. Then he completed one, sometimes se:veral, handwritten drafts in pencil, revised, gave copy to a typist (usually, his wife, Carlotta), revised again, had copy retyped, revised again, and edited. Most of the final revisions are in the form of cuts. Critics and producers have complained about the length of O'Neill's plays, but invariably his typescripts are longer than the published texts. The Iceman Cometh presents a special case. There are a -half-dozen extant typescripts to consider, and the final production script for the 1946 production is nearly six thousand words shorter than the printed text, which in this case was published simultaneously. Apparently O'Neill approved both versions, but Barlow concludes that...

pdf

Share