1888-1953 American Playwright
He was born in New York City. The son of actor James O'Neill, he toured with his father when young, and studied at Princeton 1906--07 and Harvard 1914--15. He worked as an assistant stage manager for his father 1910, as a sailor and laborer in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1910--11, and as an actor 1912. While spending time in a sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis 1912, he began to write the plays that made him an icon of American theater.
Beginning in 1916, he was associated with the Provincetown Players, where many of his early plays were produced. A restless man, plagued by depression and an illness later diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, he lived in various locations, including New York City, California, and Boston. He wrote passionate works that were derived from his own obsessions, pain, and spiritual quest, such as:
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.
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Sources:
www.eoneill.com/
McMichael, George, "Anthology of American Literature", Macmillan Publishing, NY, 1974
Last Updated 04.10.04