In this Book
- Eugene O'Neill Remembered
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
- Series: American Writers Remembered
summary
Eugene O’Neill Remembered offers new views into the playwright’s life by capturing the direct memories of those who were close to him through interviews, memoirs, and other recollections. These sixty-two remembrances create an unprecedented image of O’Neill.
Known principally as the author of some of the most significant plays in the American dramatic canon and as one of America’s Nobel Laureates in literature, O'Neill rarely gave interviews and offered few details about himself. As a consequence, his life has long been shrouded in myth. He also abetted some of the misconceptions about his youth by, for example, advocating the story that he was expelled from Princeton for throwing a rock through Woodrow Wilson's window or by exaggerating the amount of time he had spent at sea. The legend of the hard-drinking, tormented playwright with a grim view of life was further reinforced when Long Day's Journey into Night was produced in 1956, three years after his death instead of the twenty-five years he had insisted on.
The portrayal of O’Neill as a tragic figure has been solidified in a number of biographies. The purpose of this collection, however, is to present O'Neill as others saw him and described him in their first-person accounts. In the course of these reminiscences, many of the vast and various narrators conflict with and contradict each other. Unlike other accounts of O’Neill’s life, much of the focus is on impressions instead of facts. The result is a revealing composite portrait of a key figure in twentieth-century American literary history.
This extensive collection offers insights unavailable in any other book and will hold massive appeal for scholars and students interested in American literature, Eugene O’Neill, and theater history, as well as anyone keen to uncover intimate details of the life of one of America’s greatest writers.
Known principally as the author of some of the most significant plays in the American dramatic canon and as one of America’s Nobel Laureates in literature, O'Neill rarely gave interviews and offered few details about himself. As a consequence, his life has long been shrouded in myth. He also abetted some of the misconceptions about his youth by, for example, advocating the story that he was expelled from Princeton for throwing a rock through Woodrow Wilson's window or by exaggerating the amount of time he had spent at sea. The legend of the hard-drinking, tormented playwright with a grim view of life was further reinforced when Long Day's Journey into Night was produced in 1956, three years after his death instead of the twenty-five years he had insisted on.
The portrayal of O’Neill as a tragic figure has been solidified in a number of biographies. The purpose of this collection, however, is to present O'Neill as others saw him and described him in their first-person accounts. In the course of these reminiscences, many of the vast and various narrators conflict with and contradict each other. Unlike other accounts of O’Neill’s life, much of the focus is on impressions instead of facts. The result is a revealing composite portrait of a key figure in twentieth-century American literary history.
This extensive collection offers insights unavailable in any other book and will hold massive appeal for scholars and students interested in American literature, Eugene O’Neill, and theater history, as well as anyone keen to uncover intimate details of the life of one of America’s greatest writers.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- Chronology
- pp. xiii-xx
- Introduction
- pp. 1-6
- 1. George C. Tyler
- pp. 9-10
- 3. Kathleen Jenkins Pitt-Smith
- pp. 18-19
- 4. William Lee
- pp. 20-21
- 5. Pierre Loving
- pp. 22-24
- 6. Mabel Haynes
- pp. 25-27
- 7. Clayton Hamilton
- pp. 28-30
- 8. Irvin S. Cobb
- pp. 31-32
- 9. Frederick P. Latimer
- pp. 33-35
- 10. Arthur B. McGinley
- pp. 36-38
- 11. Robert A. Woodworth
- pp. 39-42
- 12. Beatrice Ashe Maher
- pp. 45-46
- 13. John V. A. Weaver
- pp. 47-50
- 14. Susan Glaspell
- pp. 51-52
- 15. Mary Heaton Vorse
- pp. 53-55
- 16. Hutchins Hapgood
- pp. 56-58
- 17. Harry Kemp
- pp. 59-65
- 18. Adele Nathan
- pp. 66-69
- 19. Dorothy Day
- pp. 70-73
- 20. William Carlos Williams
- pp. 74-76
- 21. Hazel Hawthorne Werner
- pp. 79-83
- 22. Juliet Throckmorton
- pp. 84-87
- 23. Manuel Zora
- p. 88
- 24. Edmund Wilson
- pp. 89-91
- 25. Charles O’Brien Kennedy
- pp. 92-93
- 26. Agnes Boulton
- pp. 94-101
- 27. Jasper Deeter
- pp. 102-103
- 28. Stark Young
- pp. 104-109
- 29. Malcolm Cowley
- pp. 110-117
- 30. Hart Crane
- pp. 118-120
- 31. Harold De Polo
- pp. 121-129
- 32. Brooks Atkinson
- pp. 130-131
- 33. Calvin Hoffman
- pp. 132-140
- 34. Louis Fladger
- p. 143
- 35. John Lardner
- pp. 144-145
- 36. Bennett Cerf
- pp. 146-149
- 37. Lawrence Langner
- pp. 150-157
- 38. Brooks Atkinson
- pp. 158-160
- 39. Rouben Mamoulian
- pp. 161-164
- 40. Theresa Helburn
- pp. 165-186
- 41. George Jean Nathan
- pp. 187-197
- 42. Maxine Edie Benedict
- pp. 198-200
- Part 5. California and New York (1938-1948)
- pp. 201-202
- 43. Carlotta Monterey O’Neill
- pp. 203-210
- 44. Marcella Markham
- p. 211
- 45. Ingrid Bergman
- pp. 212-214
- 46. Sean O’Casey
- pp. 215-219
- 47. Karl Schriftgiesser
- pp. 220-223
- 48. S. J. Woolf
- pp. 224-228
- 49. Max Gordon
- pp. 229-230
- 50. Herbert J. Stoeckel
- pp. 231-236
- 51. Saxe Commins
- pp. 237-248
- 52. Bennett Cerf
- pp. 249-251
- 53. Paul Crabtree
- pp. 252-256
- 54. Mary Welch
- pp. 257-262
- Part 6. Marblehead and Boston (1948-1953)
- pp. 263-264
- 55. Saxe Commins
- pp. 265-275
- 56. Carlotta Monterey O’Neill
- pp. 276-280
- 57. Bennett Cerf
- pp. 281-282
- 58. Earle F. Johnson
- pp. 283-286
- 59. Frederic B. Mayo, MD
- pp. 287-289
- 60. Sallie Coughlin
- pp. 290-294
- 61. Russel Crouse
- pp. 295-302
- 62. Carl Van Vechten
- pp. 303-306
- List of Reminiscences
- pp. 307-310
- Additional Reminiscences
- pp. 311-312
- Biographical Sketches of Important Names
- pp. 313-316
- Permissions
- pp. 317-320
- Works Cited
- pp. 351-358
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817390648
Related ISBN(s)
9780817319311, 9780817360450
MARC Record
OCLC
964554834
Pages
400
Launched on MUSE
2017-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2017