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 associated with Russian playwright
Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright
August Strindberg. The tragedy
Long Day's Journey into Night is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside
Tennessee Williams's
A Streetcar Named Desire and
Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (
Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
