Eugene O'Neill Biographical Dates

I. Background

A. James - father - born in Ireland in 1846. During the Potato Famine, his family moved to the United States when James was six.
1. James' father could not get a job, deserted the family, went back to Ireland and drank himself to death.
2. James' mother was left with six children to support. Two older brothers went off to find work leaving James at age ten to be the "man of the family." He worked for 50¢ /week.
3. At 20, James becomes an actor. At the time, Edwin Booth was one of the world's most famous actors. He pays James the ultimate compliment by saying, "that young man {James} played Othello better than I did."
4. James bought rights to the "Count of Monte Cristo" and made $36,000/year at a time when $100/year was the average. James becomes very famous but always is a penny pincher, staying in cheap hotels and wearing old clothes.

B. Mary Ellen Quinlin - mother - (1857)
1. She went to Catholic schools.When she was 19, her father took her to see James O'Neill and meet him backstage after the play. They were married not long after. She was 19; James was 30.

II. The children - Jamie, Edmund, and Eugene

A. Jamie (1878)
1.Jamie has a strong attraction to Mom (Oedipus Complex)and a strong hatred of Dad.
2. Jamie drank himself to death when he was 44.

B. Edmund (1883)
1. Jamie was very jealous of Edmund.
2. When James Sr., dad, was touring, he wired Mary to come see him. Mary wired back, "No, Jamie has the measles." James insisted. Mary left the children with a sitter with strict instructions to Jamie to stay away from Edmund.
3. Edmund contracts measles and dies. Mary became seriously depressed and never forgave herself.

C. Eugene (1888)
1. To compensate for Edmund's death and to try to help Mary out of depression, James gets Mary pregnant.
a. Oct. 1888 - One night on the road, in a cheap hotel, Mary starts labor. Instead of getting a good doctor, the cheap James hires the hotel "doctor" who gives Mary morphine to ease the pain during and after the birth of Eugene.
b. When Mama Mary comes home to Jamie, not only is there a new baby who provides competition, but Mama is a drug addict. Jamie blames the new baby for the change in his beloved Mother.
c. Mary's drug addiction causes James to drink more.

III. Eugene's life

A. Gene starts life with:
1. Father a drunk
2. Mother an addict
3. Brother Jamie hating him but loving his mother
4. Being the replacement for brother, Edmund

B. 1909 - In Connecticut, Gene meets the wealthy Kathleen Jenkins through a friend. they fall in lust. Kathleen's wealthy father dislikes Gene and sets up a meeting with James to stop a marriage. James accepts a financial arrangement to stop the marriage. Gene and Kathleen get wind of the scheme and elope. They spend one night together, and Eugene, Jr. is the result in 1910.

C. 1910-1911 - Gene goes gold prospecting to the mines in Honduras for two years. During this time, he contracts TB, the big killer of the day, and also Malaria - not the best of times.

D. 1912 - When Gene returns to the states, he does not try to contact Kathleen or try to find out any information on Eugene, Jr.

E. Kathleen's father wants her to file for divorce.Gene agrees and sets up a situation where a photographer will take a picture of him in a hotel with a prostitute.The divorce is granted.
1. Kathleen marries a second husband whose father later becomes a mass ax murderer.
2. Eugene, Jr. becomes a drunk. One day, he appears on TV drunk, and he is kicked off the air and arrested. He is found the next day in his bathtub full of blood, having committed suicide.

F. 1918 - Agnes Boulton
1. By now, Gene is a journalist. He meets Agnes in a bar with a male acquaintance of his. He takes her home, and they marry and have 2 children.
a.Shane (1919) - ended up a drunken bum and died of a heroin overdose.
b.Oona (1925) - at 19 married Charlie Chaplin who was 57. Eugene was outraged and cut her out of his life.

G. 1929 - Carlotta Monterey
1. At 49, Gene is the most famous playwright in the U.S. He was living in France with Agnes, Shane, and Oona. He goes to the opening in New York of "Strange Interlude" and meets Carlotta Monterey, leading lady.
2. Deja Vu - Gene wires Agnes to come to N.Y. She wires back, "No,I've got the kids." Carlotta, opportunist extrodinaire, sidles up to him by saying:
a. "I don't want children."
b. "Don't worry about money as an "Aunt" left me money."

The real story was that she had been married to a cartoonist for the New Yorker Magazine (Ralph Barton) and had been having an affair on the side with an extremely wealthy man, James Speyer. She got $3,000/ month from Speyer.

H. Eugene divorces Agnes and marries Carlotta.

I. -1936 - Eugene becomes the only American playwright to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. American novelist winners were William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, Pearl Buck,and Toni Morrison.

IV. Anecdotes of Carlotta's Cruelty

A. She hid from him his letters of congratulation for winning the Nobel. He was very hurt that people had not written him.
B. She used his Nobel prize money as a down payment on Tao House (pronounced "Dao").
C. In 1940s, he developed Parkinson's Disease. One day, Gene and Carlotta are walking in the snow; he falls; she goes inside the house leaving him there. If a friend had not come along to help him up, who knows what she would have done.
D. Ingrid Bergman came to visit him to discuss an upcoming series of plays. Carlotta told Ingrid that he was ill and tired easily so to leave when Carlotta placed her finger on her nose. When, after dinner, Gene wanted Ingrid to look over the plans for the plays in his study, Carlotta gave the signal to Ingrid. Ingrid ignored the sign and followed Gene. Needless to say, Ingrid was never invited back again.
E. Before he had become so ill, he had started on 9 short one act plays. Carlotta and he tore the plays up, throwing the pieces in the fire so no one could try to finish them.

V. The End

1. 1953 - Eugene Dies in a Boston Hotel.
2.His last words were "Born in a God-damn hotel; dying in a God-damn hotel."
3. In his will, he mentioned that he had written Long Days Journey into Night in 1939 at Tao House. He did not want the play to be published until 25 years after his death. In 1956, Carlotta disobeyed his wishes and sold the rights to the play.