O'Neill, Eugene, 1888-1953

A biographical timeline is provided in the Eugene O'Neill Papers (YCAL MSS 123).

American playwright.

O'Neill, American playwright.

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), playwright.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888 - 1953) was the first dramatist and second American ever to win a Nobel Prize (1936) for Literature. Four of his plays, Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, and Long Day's Journey Into Night were awarded Pulitzer Prizes.

Eugene O'Neill was an American dramatist, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. His third wife was Carlotta Monterey O'Neill.

Eugene O'Neill was an American playwright and poet.

Eugene O'Neill was an American dramatist, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. He was married three times, to Kathleen Pitt-Smith (with whom he had a son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr.), to Agnes Boulton (with whom he had a son, Shane Rudraighe O'Neill, and a daughter, Oona, who married Charlie Chaplin), and to Carlotta Monterey O'Neill.

O'Neill was an American dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. Agnes Boulton was O'Neill's second wife and an author of popular novels and short stories.

American dramatist; b. Eugene Gladstone O'Neill.

The American Play Company was a business organization that handled the licensing of plays. Prior to 1914 it was involved in play production and script purchase, but after that time it dealt exclusively in representing dramatists.

Eugene O'Neill, playwright.

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) was an American playwright.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born in New York City to James and Mary Ellen Quinlan O'Neill on October 16, 1888. His father was an actor and O'Neill was born in a hotel and spent his early years traveling as his father performed onstage. He, his brother and parents had a volatile family life which found itself later played out in O'Neill's dramas.

O'Neill attended boarding school followed by one year at Princeton. Following this he went to sea and lived a derilict life even at one point attempting suicide. In 1912-1913 he spent six months in a sanitarium and came to terms with himself. After this point he began writing plays. Except for one comedy, O'Neill focused on tragedies. Major plays include "Anna Christie," "The Iceman Cometh," and "Long Day's Journey into Night." He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1920, 1923, 1928, and 1957. In 1936 O'Neill was adwarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the only American playwright to be honored this way.

He was married to Kathleen Jenkins, Agnes Boulton and Carlotta Monterey. Eugene O'Neill died on November 27, 1953 in Boston, Massachussets.

Eugene O'Neill, Jr., classicist and son of the dramatist Eugene O'Neill and his first wife, Kathleen Jenkins, was born on 5 May 1910 in New York City. Jenkins and O'Neill had married on 2 October 1909; later that month, O'Neill went to Honduras on a gold prospecting trip. Although he returned to New York in March 1910, O'Neill and Jenkins separated, and O'Neill did not meet his son until a number of years later, when O'Neill, Jr. was eleven or twelve. O'Neill and Jenkins divorced in 1912, and Jenkins was remarried in 1915, to George Pitt-Smith (who already had a son, George, Jr.).

O'Neill, Jr. attended New York public schools and the Horace Mann School, and received his B.A. from Yale University in 1932. He won many awards while an undergraduate at Yale, including the Winthrop Prize for knowledge of Greek and Latin poetry, the Jacob Cooper Prize in Greek philosophy, the Noyes-Cutter Prize for translating biblical Greek, the Soldiers Memorial Foote Fellowship for classical research (all four years), and the Berkeley scholarship for classical Greek. O'Neill, Jr. was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of Skull and Bones, and he served as the Ivy Laureate at his commencement.

O'Neill, Jr. began his graduate studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where he studies classics from 1932 to 1933. While abroad, he also traveled in Iceland, Norway, and the Netherlands. He returned to Yale to complete his studies and received the Ph.D. in 1936. That same year, he was appointed instructor in classics at Yale.

In 1941, O'Neill, Jr. he rose to the rank of assistant professor. From 1942 to 1943, he took time off from teaching to assist in the war effort. He worked at the Greist Manufacturing Company, an anti-aircraft gun parts factory, and then at the American Steel & Wire Company, and in 1943 was drafted by the army but then rejected because of a childhood injury. That fall, he returned to his post at Yale, spending half of his time in the Department of Classics and the other half teaching English to Navy V-12 students.

In May 1944, while continuing his full-time teaching at Yale, O'Neill, Jr. also began working full-time as a radio announcer at WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. That fall, he moved to New York City, taking the semester off from Yale to devote himself to his radio work. He returned to teaching at Yale in the spring of 1945, but he resided in New York City and continued his work in radio. In the summer of 1945, he added to his workload a session of teaching at Sarah Lawrence College.

In the fall of 1945, O'Neill, Jr. took two years' leave of absence from Yale to devote himself entirely to radio, and in July 1947 ended his association with Yale, though not with teaching. During the academic year of 1947-1948, he taught at Princeton University and at the New School for Social Research. From the fall of 1948 until his death, he taught at the New School and at Fairleigh Dickinson College while continuing his work in radio.

O'Neill, Jr. was married three times. His first wife was Mary Elizabeth Greene ("Betty"), whom he married on 15 June 1931 while an undergraduate student at Yale. He and Betty were divorced in April 1937, and on 25 May, O'Neill, Jr. married Janet Hunter Longley, who was the daughter of a Yale mathematics professor; they were divorced in the summer of 1938. On 3 July 1939, O'Neill, Jr. married Sally [Hayward?], whose mother, Marjorie F. Hayward, was the curator at the Pardee Morris House in New Haven, Connecticut. During that summer, he and Sally visited Eugene O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey O'Neill at Tao House in California, as well O'Neill, Jr.'s childhood friend, Lois Williams Bry and her family in Ennis, Montana. In April 1944, Sally left O'Neill, Jr. and moved to New York City. He himself moved to New York City in the fall. Four years later, in the summer of 1948, O'Neill, Jr. moved to Woodstock, New York with the art agent Ruth Reade Lander. He increasingly relied on alcohol, and his relationships with others became more difficult. O'Neill, Jr. committed suicide on 25 September 1950 in Woodstock, New York.

In addition to published articles (on Greek metrics and Greek drama) and reviews, O'Neill, Jr. edited with Whitney J. Oates The Complete Greek Drama: All the Extant Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the Comedies of Aristophanes and Menander, in a Variety of Translations, which was published in 1938. Some of his radio credits include the programs "Invitation to Learning" and the "Author Meets the Critic." He also recorded books for the blind.

1888 Oct 16: O'Neill born in New York City to Mary Ellen Quinlan O'Neill and actor James O'Neill.

1888 Dec 28: Carlotta born Hazel Neilson Tharsing in Oakland, California to Nellie Gotchett Tharsing and Christian Tharsing.

1906: O'Neill attends Princeton University for one year.

1909 Oct 2: O'Neill marries Kathleen Jenkins; O'Neill goes to Honduras on gold prospecting trip; Carlotta Monterey marries John Moffat (they divorce soon after).

1910 Mar: O'Neill returns to New York City.

1910 May 5: Eugene O'Neill, Jr. born.

1912 Jan: O'Neill attempts suicide.

1912 Jul: O'Neill and Jenkins divorce.

1912 Dec: O'Neill enters Gaylord Farm Sanatorium for tuberculosis treatment.

1913 Jun: O'Neill leaves Gaylord Farm.

1914: O'Neill takes George Pierce Baker's English 47 workshop at Harvard University.

1916: O'Neill goes to Provincetown, Mass.; helps organize Provincetown Players; moves to New York City; Carlotta Monterey marries M. C. Chapman in October.

1917: O'Neill moves back to Provincetown in March; moves to New York City in fall; meets Agnes Boulton; Cynthia Chapman is born to Carlotta Monterey and M. C. Chapman (they divorce within one year).

1918: O'Neill moves with Boulton to Provincetown; marries Boulton Apr 12; they move to West Point Pleasant (N.J.) in fall.

1919: They move to Peaked Hill Bar (Provincetown, Mass.) in May; rent house in town in fall.

1919 Oct 30: Shane Rudraighe O'Neill born in Provincetown.

1920 Aug 10: James O'Neill dies.

1922 Feb 28: Mary Ellen Quinlan O'Neill dies.

1922 Apr: Carlotta Monterey plays Mildred Douglas in The Hairy Ape ; she meets O'Neill.

1922 fall: O'Neill and family move to Brook Farm (Ridgefield, Conn.).

1922: Carlotta Monterey marries Ralph Barton.

1923 Nov 8: James O'Neill, Jr. dies.

1924 fall: O'Neill and family move to Bermuda; rent cottage in Paget Parish.

1925 May 14: Oona O'Neill born.

1925 Jul: O'Neill and family go to Nantucket (Mass.).

1925 Oct: O'Neill and family go to Brook Farm.

1926 Feb: O'Neill and family go to Bermuda; rent Bellevue in Paget Parish.

1926 Mar: Carlotta Monterey divorces Ralph Barton.

1926 Jun 23: O'Neill receives honorary degree from Yale University.

1926: O'Neill and family go to Belgrade Lakes (Me.) in the summer; visited by Barbara Burton and Eugene O'Neill, Jr.; O'Neill meets Carlotta Monterey again.

1926 Oct: O'Neill goes to New York; sees Carlotta.

1926 Nov: O'Neill goes to Bermuda; Spithead is renovated.

1927 Aug: O'Neill goes to New York for play rehearsals.

1927 Oct: O'Neill goes to Bermuda.

1927 Nov: O'Neill goes to New York.

1928 Feb 10: O'Neill leaves with Carlotta for Europe.

1928 Mar: Rent villa in Guéthary (France).

1928 Oct: Leave for China.

1928 Dec: Leave for Manila.

1929 Jan 1: Carlotta leaves O'Neill in Colombo, Ceylon.

1929 Jan 15: Reunited in Port Said (Egypt).

1929 Jan: Rent villa in Cap-d'Ail (France).

1929 Jun: Rent Château du Plessis (St. Antoine-du-Rocher, Indre et Loire, France).

1929 Jul 2: O'Neill and Boulton divorce.

1929 Jul 22: O'Neill marries Carlotta in Paris.

1929 fall: Buy dalmation, Silverdene Emblem (Blemie).

1930 Oct: Travel in Spain and Morocco.

1930 Nov: Return to Château du Plessis.

1931 Mar: Go to Las Palmas (Canary Islands).

1931 May: Return to New York City.

1931 May 19: Ralph Barton commits suicide.

1931 Jun: Rent Beacon Farm (Northport, N.Y.).

1931 Sep: Rent apartment at 1095 Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.).

1932 Jun: Move to Casa Genotta (Sea Island, Ga.).

1933 Aug: Vacation at Wolf Lake (N.Y.).

1934 Aug-Sep: Vacation at Wolf Lake (N.Y.).

1936 Nov: Move to Seattle; rent house at 4701 West Ruffner Street.

1936 Nov 12: O'Neill wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

1936 Dec: O'Neill hospitalized at Merritt Hospital (Oakland, Calif.); has appendix removed.

1937 Apr: Rent house at 2909 Avalon Avenue, Berkeley (Calif.).

1937 Jun: Rent house in Lafayette (Calif.).

1937 Dec: Move to Tao House (Danville, Calif.).

1940 Dec 17: Blemie dies.

1942 Apr: Oona chosen "Debutante No. 1" by Stork Club (New York, N.Y.).

1943 Jun 16: Oona marries Charlie Chaplin.

1944 Feb: Sell Tao House; move to Huntington Hotel (San Francisco, Calif.).

1945 Oct: Move to Hotel Barclay (New York, N.Y.).

1946 spring: Move to apartment at 35 East 84th Street.

1948 Jan 18: Carlotta leaves O'Neill.

1948 Jan 27: O'Neill breaks left arm.

1948 Mar: They reconcile.

1948 fall: Move to cottage in Marblehead (Mass.).

1950 Sep 25: O'Neill, Jr. commits suicide in Woodstock (N.Y.).

1951 Feb 5: O'Neill and Carlotta quarrel; O'Neill breaks leg; is hospitalized at Salem Hospital.

1951 Feb 6: Carlotta hospitalized as psychiatric patient.

1951 Mar 23: O'Neill signs petition alleging Carlotta is insane and incapable.

1951 Mar 31: O'Neill enters Doctors' Hospital (New York, N.Y.).

1951 Apr 23: O'Neill withdraws petition against Carlotta.

1951 May 17: O'Neill moves with Carlotta to Shelton Hotel, Suite 401 (Boston, Mass.); they sell Marblehead cottage.

1953 Nov 27: O'Neill dies at Shelton Hotel.

1953 Dec 2: O'Neill buried at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston, Mass.).

1955: Carlotta moves to Lowell Hotel (New York, N.Y.).

1958: Carlotta moves to Carlton House (New York, N.Y.).

1968 Nov: Carlotta enters St. Luke's Hospital (New York, N.Y.).

1969 Mar: Carlotta transferred to DeWitt Nursing Home (New York, N.Y.).

1970 Jul: Carlotta transferred to Valley Nursing Home (Westwood, N.J.).

1970 Nov 18: Carlotta dies at Valley Nursing Home.

1970 Nov 28: Carlotta buried at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston, Mass.). For further information, see: Bogard, Travis and Jackson R. Bryer, editors. Selected Letters of Eugene O'Neill . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Boulton, Agnes. Part of a Long Story . Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958. Bowen, Croswell. The Curse of the Misbegotten: A Tale of the House of O'Neill . New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1959. Gelb, Arthur and Barbara Gelb. O'Neill . New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Miller, Jordan Yale. Eugene O'Neill and the American Critic: A Summary and Bibliographical Checklist . Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1974. O'Neill, Eugene. Complete Plays . New York, N.Y.: Library of America, 1988. Sheaffer, Louis. O'Neill: Son and Playwright . Boston: Little, Brown, 1968. Sheaffer, Louis. O'Neill: Son and Artist . Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.