Eugene Gladstone O'Neill Jr. (May 5, 1910 – September 25, 1950) was an American professor of

Greek literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...

and the only child of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning playwright

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

and his first wife, Kathleen Jenkins.

Early life

O'Neill Jr.'s parents divorced in 1912, when he was a

toddler A toddler is a child approximately 12 to 36 months old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "to toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, like a child ...

. O'Neill once said he did not even meet his father until age 12. He entered Yale in 1928; in his freshman year a poem he had written was widely reprinted. He graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

from Yale in 1932, where he was a member of

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

secret student society. After studying abroad for a year, he earned a PhD in philosophy from Yale in 1936.

Career

As a

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and philosophy scholar, O'Neill taught at Yale, Princeton, Fordham University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New School for Social Research. He was the editor of a collection of Greek plays; shortly before his death he had contributed book reviews to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and the ''

Saturday Review of Literature ''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, ess ...

'', and also been featured on the CBS radio show, "Invitation to Learning".

Personal life and death

O'Neill married in 1931, to Elizabeth Green; this marriage ended in divorce after six years. He married secondly Sarah Hayward in 1939, whom he divorced after seven years. He then remarried a third time, to Janet Hunter Longley. O'Neill abused alcohol, as did his father and grandfather. On September 25, 1950, in

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

, he committed suicide at age 40 by slitting his wrist and ankle with a razor. He then walked downstairs and expired by the front door of his cottage. These lines were found among his effects after his death: "Never let it be said of O'Neill that he failed to empty a bottle.

Ave atque vale }. Name of episode 1 in season 3 of '' Berlin Station''. , - , ''aut cum scuto aut in scuto'', , either with shield or on shield, , Or, "do or die" or "no retreat". A Greek expression («Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς») that Spartan mothers sa ...

ail and farewell" Shortly before his death, he had played the lead in a local theatrical production for the benefit of the local

artists' colony An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of Artist, artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior exi ...

References

External links

* * Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Collection. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Last photograph taken of O'Neill
1910 births 1950 suicides 1950 deaths American classical scholars Yale University alumni Yale University faculty Sarah Lawrence College faculty The New School faculty Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States Suicides in New York (state) Members of Skull and Bones {{US-edu-bio-stub