Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone (1888–1952), U.S. playwright, winner of the 1936 Nobel Prize for literature and several Pulitzer Prizes. He started to write plays during a convalescence from tuberculosis and was initially involved in off-Broadway efforts to introduce seriousness into American theater. Whether expressionistic (The Emperor Jones, 1920), naturalistic (Anna Christie, 1921), symbolist (The Hairy Ape, 1922), or updated Greek tragedy (Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931), his plays were ambitious in scope and relentlessly tragic (except for the comedy Ah, Wilderness!, 1933). His work included the masterpieces The Iceman Cometh (1946) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1956).