Louis Sheaffer (né Slung October 18, 1912 – August 7, 1993) was an American journalist for the ''

Brooklyn Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'' between 1934 and 1955. After the newspaper's closure in 1955, Sheaffer wrote a two part biography on

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

and released the first volume ''O'Neill: Son and Playwright'' in 1968. The final part of Sheaffer's biography on O'Neill, titled ''O'Neill: Son and Artist'', was awarded the 1974

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...

and nominated for the 1974 National Book Award for Biography. Apart from the Pulitzer Prize, Sheaffer was a three-time

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

recipient between the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life and education

On October 18, 1912, Louis Sheaffer Slung was born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He briefly went to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

for his post-secondary education in the early 1930s.

Career

In 1934, Sheaffer began his career with the ''

'' as a

newspaper journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during World War II and resumed his tenure with the Eagle in 1946. Later on, Sheaffer was named the newspaper's film critic in 1947 and theater critic in 1949. Sheaffer remained with the ''Brooklyn Eagle'' as a theatre critic until the newspaper's closure in 1955. After leaving the newspaper, Sheaffer moved to the

Circle in the Square Theatre The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 50th Street, in the basement of Paramount Plaza, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is one of two Broadway theaters that use a thrust stage that extends ...

and worked as a

press agent In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...

for a year. In 1956, Sheaffer started writing a two-part biography on playwright

. Sheaffer released the first part of his O'Neill biography, ''O'Neill: Son and Playwright'', in 1968 and followed up with the second part, titled ''O'Neill: Son and Artist'', in 1973. The following year, ''O'Neill: Son and Artist'' was awarded the 1974

Awards and honors

Studying theater arts, Sheaffer received his first

in 1959 and received additional fellowships in 1962 and 1969. In 1974, Sheaffer was nominated for the National Book Award for Biography for ''O'Neill: Son and Artist''.

Death

Sheaffer died from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

Long Island College Hospital University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital (or LICH) was a 506-bed teaching hospital located in the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. The hospital was founded in 1858 as Long Island Coll ...

on August 7, 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheaffer, Louis American theater critics 1993 deaths American male journalists American film critics Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners University of North Carolina alumni 1912 births American male biographers