| Term Paper Title | Eugene Gladstone O’Neill |
| # of Words | 749 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 3 |
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was a very talented man and was very fortunate in having the writing skill he did. Eugene was a man of the theater, he was born in it, lived in it, worked in it and wrote in it. (Henry, “Eugene O’Neill”, p.157.) O’Neill is referred to as the most important twentieth century writer, not because he was the first american playwright but because of the influence of his work on the development of the american theater and on other writers. O’Neill said “The theater to me is life- the substance and Interpretation of life............. [And] life is struggle, often, if not usually, unsuccessful struggle.” (Henry, “Eugene O’Neill”, p.157.) O’Neill has achieved an international reputation throughout the world, his plays and stories are the subject of countless books and articles.
Eugene was born at the Barrett Hotel in New York on Oct, 16 1888. His father James O’Neill was one of Americas most popular 19th Century actors, who was imprisoned by the material success of his role as the Count of Monte Cristo. Eugene’s mother Ellen Quinlan O’Neill was a romantic and idealistic women who was affected most of her life by an addiction to morphine.
During his childhood Eugene attended the Mount Vincent Catholic Boarding School between the years 1895 and 1900. After leaving Mount Vincent Eugene attended Bett’s Academy in Stanford Connecticut from 1900 to 1906. In 1906 Eugene was accepted to Princeton University but before completing one year he got expelled.
After getting expelled from Princeton he spent 5 or 6 years as a drifter and a sailor traveling on journeys to the Honduras, South America and Europe. (Strecker,“Eugene O’Neill”,p.1535.)By 1912 O’Neill had been a gold prospector, a seaman and was a regular at many New York Cities flop houses. While he was on one of his expeditions as a seaman he developed the disease Tuberculosis which put him in the Gaylord Farm Sanatorium on December 24, 1912. This little experience with the hospital and the disease was the most important turning point in his life. While he was in the hospital he read a lot of modern drama and was inspired to become a playwright. After he recovered from Tuberculosis he studied playwriting a...Read entire document
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