Eugene O'Neil Through poverty and fame, "An artist or nothing" (Miller p6), was the motto of a man named Eugene ONeill, who wrote from his soul in an attempt to find salvation.
In the year 1888, the Barrett House hotel in Time Square, New York saw the birth of a man who would be called the greatest American playwright. His father James, was an actor, and was famous across the United Sates for his role in the popular play Monte Cristo. Eugenes mother was a beautiful woman named Ellen who was also gifted with a great artistic talent. Through out his life, he would travel all over the world, marry three women, have three children, and write some of the best American Drama that would ever be written.
"Much of his life would be devoted to writing plays of tragic power"(David p11), and "His works reveal the unsatisfied searching of a soul for truth"(David p11). When Eugene was born, he was a great inconvenience to his parents, who already had one child, and spent most of their time traveling around the country playing in different cities. As a result of this, he was raised in the care of a Cornish nanny, keeping him isolated from the rest of his family. He would continue to spend most of his youth away from his family as he would be educated almost entirely in boarding schools. When he was still a young boy, his parents enrolled him in St.
Aloysius Academy for boys in Riverdale New York. He was a good student and didnt really stand out as a youth. He passed through De La Salle Institute and actually stayed at home for the first year of school there. He attended Betts Academy which is no longer in existence today but at the time it was one of the finer preparatory schools in the nation.
While he was boarding there, his family moved their home from New York City to New London Connecticut where ONeil would spend most of his life.His problems, arose when he entered into Princeton University in 1906. He held strongly to the philosophy of "all play and no work"(Miller p4), and he was eventually suspended. This was because he was caught by the yard master breaking power cables and windows in the University train station. His suspension was to last only for two weeks but he never returned to campus.
Officially he was expelled from the school for poor academic standing.Eugene moved into a New York apartment with his friend Frank Best after leaving Princeton. He held a trivial job as secretary to the president of a small shipping company. He spent his earnings and his fathers allowance on wild living, he met James Findlater who was to become his best friend and bases for the character Jimmy Tomorrow from Iceman Cometh and was the same character in Tomorrow which was one of ONeils only short stories. James would eventually introduce Eugene to Kathleen Jenkins, the daughter of a wealthy New York business man.
Her parents objected to any marriage taking place and so did his.They would eventually elope though in the fall of 1909 when Eugene discovered his father was sending him to Honduras to look for gold. Fourteen days after the wedding, Eugene found himself in Mexico where he ended his journey south due to a tough battle with Malaria. He would return to New York after his recovery, but still refused to live with his wife.
He took up a job with his fathers acting troop but that did not last long. Eugene and Kathleen soon had a son, Eugene Gladstoone Jr. and his father would only visit him once through out his infancy.In order not to have anything to do with his son, he took on a job as a seaman on a Norwegian liner that had regular trade routs all along the coast of North and South America. After sailing for fifty seven days, Eugene jumped ship in Buenos Aires.
Here he spent time doing several different jobs "considered one of the only high points in his early life"(Miller p5). He applied for jobs he was unqualified to do so in a matter of weeks he was fired, and he had to go back to sea to find a living. He spent the next several months in the south Atlantic and even made a few stops in South Africa.He eventually quit this job to wonder in poverty up and down the coasts of Argentina and Brazil. Finally returned to New York stowed on a British Liner. He still would not live his wife and son so with a three dollar a month allowance he rented a place on the docks called Jimmy the Priests Waterfront Dive.
He still did not work and sank deeper into poverty. His father forced him to get a job so he signed on as a seaman on a trans.-Atlantic luxury liner.Eugene hated the sea so much though that he returned to Jimmy the Priests only to attempt suicide by massive intake of veronal. He was saved by his friend James Byth and he was now made to go travel with his fathers vaudeville company, but that did not last long due to Eugenes poor acting ability. Eugenes writing talent was discovered on accident when his father got him a job with the New London Telegraph.
He ran a poetry column and often filled it with his own work using several different pen names. He would also at this time supply poems to the New York Call."The Masses," and Franklin P. Adams "Conning Tower" were among his best poems written during this time. Still only writing as a hobby, he found it was a good way to fund his extravagant social life. Due to his lifestyle, his wife Kathleen became upset and once when he was with a prostitute she barged in and demanded a divorce on grounds of adultery.
They were legally separated on October 11,1912.Shortly after this event, he came down with tuberculosis and was in and out of several medical institutions. He recovered in a matter of months and he went to live with his friend James Rippen. During this time, Eugene began seriously writing plays and he began sending scripts to New York with little success. "The Web" and "A Wife For A Life," were bought but never performed. Shortly following his rejection he began writing "Bound East For Cardiff," considered one of his masterpieces.
He also applied to the Harvard drama department to study modern play writing and with the encouragement of friend Clayton Hamilton, he decided he would attend the class. This is the time when he came up with the motto "An artist or nothing"(Miller p6), which would guide the coarse of the rest of his life. When finally, "Thirst," a book of one act plays was published, he was exited to finally be published. However, the book was an immediate failure and ONeill would prevent it ever from being released in his lifetime.
When he finally attended classes at Harvard, he was unimpressed with the works of other modern poets and therefor was not very active. Spent another summer of failed romance and parties, and would eventually move into his own place in Greenwich Village. While living in the village, he frequented the Golden Swan Bar, and became an alcoholic.In fact, "the only tie he stopped drinking was when he was writing"(Miller p7).
"Bound East for Cardiff," became Eugenes fist hit and ...
