Boulton, Agnes, 1893-1968

Second wife of Eugene O'Neill.

Agnes Boulton was the second wife of the American dramatist and Nobel Prize winner Eugene O'Neill. Boulton was a writer of popular novels and short stories. She and O'Neill were the parents of Shane Rudraighe O'Neill and Oona Chaplin.

Agnes Boulton was a writer of popular novels and short stories. Boulton was the second wife of the American dramatist and Nobel Prize winner Eugene O'Neill. She and O'Neill were the parents of Shane Rudraighe O'Neill and Oona Chaplin.

Agnes Boulton, who was Eugene O'Neill's second wife and a writer of popular novels and short stories, was born on 19 September 1893. After Boulton and O'Neill met in New York City in the fall of 1917, they moved to Provincetown early in 1918, and were married on 12 April of that year. They spent the following fall and winter at Boulton's house in West Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and then in May 1919 moved to the former Coast Guard station (Peaked Hill Bar) in Provincetown, which was purchased for them by O'Neill's father from the writer Mabel Dodge Luhan. On 30 October 1919, their son, Shane Rudraighe, was born in Provincetown.

In the fall of 1922, the O'Neills moved to Brook Farm in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and then two years later, to Bermuda. Their daughter, Oona, was born in Bermuda on 14 May 1925. The family divided their time between Brook Farm and Bermuda (where they later bought a house, Spithead). In the summer of 1926, they rented a cottage in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, where they were visited by Boulton's daughter from her first marriage, Barbara Burton, and by O'Neill's son from his first marriage, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. It was in Belgrade Lakes that O'Neill renewed his acquaintance with Carlotta Monterey, who had starred in the 1922 New York production of his playThe Hairy Ape. From that point on, O'Neill divided his time between New York and Bermuda, and between Carlotta and Boulton. In 1928, O'Neill made his choice and left on 10 February with Carlotta for Europe. Boulton tried to save the marriage, but she and O'Neill finally divorced in July 1929.

Boulton wrote a memoir about her marriage to O'Neill, Part of a Long Story (1958), as well as a novel, The Road is Before Us (1944). Boulton later remarried, but she and her third husband were subsequently separated. Boulton died on 25 November 1968 in West Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

For further information, see Boulton's memoir, Part of a Long Story (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958).

Biographical note is drawn from the finding aid for the Agnes Boulton Collection of Eugene O'Neill, YCAL MSS 122.

Agnes Boulton, who was Eugene O'Neill's second wife and a writer of popular novels and short stories, was born on 19 September 1893. After Boulton and O'Neill met in New York City in the fall of 1917, they moved to Provincetown early in 1918, and were married on 12 April. They spent the fall and winter at Boulton's house in West Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and then in May 1919 moved to the former Coast Guard station (Peaked Hill Bar) in Provincetown, which was purchased for them by O'Neill's father from the writer Mabel Dodge Luhan. On 30 October 1919, their son, Shane Rudraighe, was born in Provincetown.

In the fall of 1922, the O'Neills moved to Brook Farm in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and then two years later, to Bermuda. Their daughter, Oona, was born in Bermuda on 14 May 1925. The family divided their time between Brook Farm and Bermuda (where they later bought a house, Spithead). In the summer of 1926, they rented a cottage in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, where they were visited by Boulton's daughter from her first marriage, Barbara Burton, and by O'Neill's son from his first marriage, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. It was in Belgrade Lakes that O'Neill renewed his acquaintance with Carlotta Monterey, who had starred in the 1922 New York production of his play The Hairy Ape . From that point on, O'Neill divided his time between New York and Bermuda, and between Carlotta and Boulton. In 1928, O'Neill made his choice and left on 10 February with Carlotta for Europe. Boulton tried to save the marriage, but she and O'Neill finally divorced in July 1929.

Boulton later remarried, but she and her third husband were subsequently separated. Boulton died on 25 November 1968 in West Point Pleasant, New Jersey. For further information, see Agnes Boulton's memoir, Part of a Long Story (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958). For further information about Eugene O'Neill, see the biographical timeline in the Eugene O'Neill Papers (YCAL MSS 123).