Eugene O'Neill has long been celebrated as America's greatest
playwright. This year, in the centennial of his birth, Yale
University Press takes pride in bringing out an edition of
O'Neill's little-known works of the imagination and his principal
critical statements, most of which have not hitherto been
published. Edited and introduced by eminent O'Neill scholar Travis
Bogard, the pieces-mostly early works-shed valuable light on
O'Neill's artistic development. Contained here are a four-act
tragedy, "The Personal Equation"; the original version of Marco
Millions; a dramatic adaptation of Coleridge's "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner"; a scenario "The Reckoning," and Bolton O'Neill;
the fourth act of "The Ole Davil," which became, with some
alteration of tone, "Anna Christie"; and two short stories,
"Tomorrow" and "S.O.S." Also included are an unpublished love poem
and several critical and occasional pieces, composition of Mourning
Becomes Electra and "The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene
Emblem O'Neill," written on behalf of his Dalmatian, Blemie. "There
is here no undiscovered masterwork," says Bogard in his foreword,
"but much here foreshadows what was to come as 'Tomorrow,' written
in 1917, explores the ground on which The Iceman Cometh was to be
created. In some of the writing, O'Neill is struggling to learn his
craft: the scenario of 'The Reckoning,' for example, shows him in
the process of forming a lifelong habit of detailing a play in a
long narrative account. In the poem to Jane Caldwell and the
memorial for Blemie, glimpses of a gentle, private man can be
caught. In the critical pieces, O'Neill attempts an
uncharacteristic but interesting articulation of his theatrical
principles. In all the fugitive works gathered here, the O'Neill
voice sounds clear.... It remains worth hearing." "An important
work about an unknown O'Neill that will reveal this fascinating
personality to the general public." -Paul Shyre Travis Bogard,
emeritus professor of dramatic art at the University of California,
Berkeley, has edited many works and papers of O'Neill, including,
with Jackson R. Bryer, "The Theatre We Worked For": The Letters of
Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan.
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