Eugene O'Neill's Last Plays

This study draws on new and unprecedented research concerning the lives of Eugene ONeill, his family, and his circle. It corrects and expands the biographical record on ONeill, sharpens our understanding of his art, and distinguishes the man and his life more clearly than ever from the creations that were inspired by, and drew on, that life. In his final creative years, 1939 to 1943, ONeill wrote The Iceman Cometh, Long Days Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Because these plays are so intense, intimate, and evocative of the friends and family members who influenced ONeills artistic development, biographers and critics have longand mistakenlyregarded them as accurate sources for insights into the playwrights early years. Drawing upon interviews and a staggering amount of archival research into multiple generations of the ONeill family, Alexander sets the historical record straight by documenting the actual people and situations on which characters and scenes in ONeills last plays are based. Included in her study are such topics as the playwrights attempted suicide, his tuberculosis, and his relationship with his parents. By revealing the distinctions between ONeills life and his art, Alexanders findings make possible greater insight into the artistry that shaped these final plays and brought them to life.