In the 1910s the American theater, long dominated by melodramas, dictatorial producers (most of whom were artless magnates), and an audience more drawn by stars-preferably Britishthan good scripts, was finally ready to establish its own identity. The...

In the 1910s the American theatre, long dominated by melodramas, dictatorial producers (most of whom were artless magnates), and an audience more drawn by stars--preferably British--than good scripts, was finally ready to establish its own identity....

"I want to be an artist or nothing," wrote aspiring playwright Eugene O'Neill at the age of twenty-five. He pursued his goal relentlessly, and when he died forty years later he had written more than fifty plays, won the Nobel and several Pulitzer...

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) was among the foremost dramatists of the America theater. His main concern was with the anguish and turmoil that wrack the spirits of sensitive people. Eugene O'Neill set out to create meaningful drama in America at a time...