O'Neill: Son and Artist

by Louis Sheaffer

The most lauded playwright in American history, Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) won four Pulitzer Prizes and a Nobel Prize for a body of work that includes The Iceman Cometh , Mourning Becomes Electra , Desire Under the Elms , and Long Day's Journey into Night . His life, the direct source for so much of his art, was one of personal tumult from the very beginning. The son of a famous actor and a quiet, morphine-addicted mother, O'Neill had experienced alcoholism, a collapse of his health, and bouts of mania while still a young man. Based on years of extensive research and access to previously untapped sources, Sheaffer's authoritative biography examines how the pain of O'Neill's childhood fed his desire to write dramas and affected his artistically successful and emotionally disastrous life.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

768 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Jessica López-Barkl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I've finally finished to two-tome biography of America's first tragedian. It was a complicated read. I was equally repulsed by the man and equally fascinated. He was a terrible father but tipped waitresses and bellmen well. I don't know. All I really know is that he was an artist first and nothing second. He was a disciplined writer and was clearly inspirational in his epic understanding of the antithesis in the human spirit. I have been inspired by him and I have always felt him to be keenly American. I recommend this book to the willing (it's a long, sometimes depressing read) and to any who are serious about their pursuit of live theater. There are many life-lessons, and things not to do. We should learn from our forefathers who attempted new works in a burgeoning theater scene. It would help enliven the issues that our live theater scene is feeling now. Budget cuts, time constraints, bad theaters, audience development, discipline, dealing with critics...it's all in here.