The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-18
BY BARRETT H. CLARK.

worthy asked INC 10 na1De our
most promising native dramatist | was
at first unable to do so. / tried 10 think
Of some new star on the theatrical horizon
and mentioned the names Of two or three
pIaywrights whose work seemed to me
above the average.
1t was not, however, until after l had
exhausted the Broadway group that L
thought of the one logical man. The
name of Eugene G. O'Neill had not Oe-
Cured to me at once in connection with
Broadway, where Mr.. O'Neill is prac-
tically unknown. My mind wandered to
the Comedy Theatre and the Greenwich
Village Theatre, where | had seen three
plays that stood out above all other
American plays that have come to my
notice in recent years: In the Zone, lie
and The Rope.
told Mr.. Galsworthy that in Eugene G.
ONeill 1 felt there was something genu-
inely American, that he was not only
"promising'-Heaven knows, Broadway
is full of the promising youngsters" of
yesteryear-but that his actual achieve
ment was considerable.
l have just sent Galsworthy The Noon
of the Cdribbees, and Sir Other Plays Of
the Sea, and am sure he will realize, as
I do, that O'Neills volume is significant
collection of one act plays, the most sig
nifcant that has been published in this
country.
II.
Eugene G. O'NeilI, son of the actor
James O'Neill, is just thirty. As might
be readily inferred from his plays, he
knows the sea and he has lived in many
lands.
In 1909 he went with a mining en-
gineer on gold prospecting trip to
Spanish Honduras. At the end of six
Notwithstanding found no gold-he was
invalided home, after contracting malarial
fever. On his recovery he entered the
theatrical world as assistant manager of
a travelling company, touring the East
and Middle West.
His next venture was his first sea voy-
"sixty-fve days on a Norwegian
barque, Boston to Buenos Ayres." He
himself continues:
"In Argentina worked at various oc-
cupations-in the draughting department
of the Westinghouse Electrical Company,
IN wool house of packing plant at La
Plata, in the office of the Singer Sewing
Machine Company in Buenos Ayres. Fol-
lowed another voyage at sea, tending
mules on a cattle steamer, Buenos Ayres
to Durham, South Africa, and return.
After that lengthy period of complete
restitution in Buenos Ayres-'on the
beach-terninated by my signing on as
ordinary seaman on a British tramp
steamer bound home for New York. Ny
final experience at sea followed soon after
this-able seaman on the American Line,
New York-Seuthampton."
"The next winter played part in my
fathers version Of Monte Cristo, touring
the Far West. Then I worked as reporter
on the New London, Conn.,, Telegraph.
My health broke down, my lungs being
affected, and L spent SIX months In san
itarium thinking it over. 1t was in this
enforced period of reflection that the
urge to write first came to me. The next
fall was twenty-four-I> began my
first play-The Web. In 191415 1 was
a student in Prof. Bakers English AZ at
Harvard. The summer of 1916 spent at
Provincetown. 1t was during that sum-
mer the Provincetown Players, who have
made the original productions of nearly
all my short plays in New York, were first
organized"
Add year at Princeton in 19O6-07,
and three or four more in writing sue
cessful one act plays, and you will begin
to realize the extraordinarily multifarious
activities of this young man Just out Of