EUGENE O'NEILL, JR.
(1910-1950)
Eugene O'Neill, Jr., classicist and son
of the dramatist Eugene O'Neill and his first wife, Kathleen Jenkins,
was born on 5 May 1910 in New York City. Jenkins and O'Neill had married
on 2 October 1909; later that month, O'Neill went to Honduras on a gold
prospecting trip. Although he returned to New York in March 1910,
O'Neill and Jenkins separated, and O'Neill did not meet his son until a
number of years later, when O'Neill, Jr. was eleven or twelve. O'Neill
and Jenkins divorced in 1912, and Jenkins was remarried in 1915, to
George Pitt-Smith (who already had a son, George, Jr.).
O'Neill, Jr. attended New York public
schools and the Horace Mann School, and received his B.A. from Yale
University in 1932. He won many awards while an undergraduate at Yale,
including the Winthrop Prize for knowledge of Greek and Latin poetry,
the Jacob Cooper Prize in Greek philosophy, the Noyes-Cutter Prize for
translating biblical Greek, the Soldiers Memorial Foote Fellowship for
classical research (all four years), and the Berkeley scholarship for
classical Greek. O'Neill, Jr. was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of
Skull and Bones, and he served as the Ivy Laureate at his commencement.
O'Neill, Jr. began his graduate studies
at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where he studies classics from
1932 to 1933. While abroad, he also traveled in Iceland, Norway, and the
Netherlands. He returned to Yale to complete his studies and received
the Ph.D. in 1936. That same year, he was appointed instructor in
classics at Yale.
In 1941, O'Neill, Jr. he rose to the
rank of assistant professor. From 1942 to 1943, he took time off from
teaching to assist in the war effort. He worked at the Greist
Manufacturing Company, an anti-aircraft gun parts factory, and then at
the American Steel & Wire Company, and in 1943 was drafted by the
army but then rejected because of a childhood injury. That fall, he
returned to his post at Yale, spending half of his time in the
Department of Classics and the other half teaching English to Navy V-12
students.
In May 1944, while continuing his
full-time teaching at Yale, O'Neill, Jr. also began working full-time as
a radio announcer at WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. That fall, he moved
to New York City, taking the semester off from Yale to devote himself to
his radio work. He returned to teaching at Yale in the spring of 1945,
but he resided in New York City and continued his work in radio. In the
summer of 1945, he added to his workload a session of teaching at Sarah
Lawrence College.
In the fall of 1945, O'Neill, Jr. took
two years' leave of absence from Yale to devote himself entirely to
radio, and in July 1947 ended his association with Yale, though not with
teaching. During the academic year of 1947-1948, he taught at Princeton
University and at the New School for Social Research. From the fall of
1948 until his death, he taught at the New School and at Fairleigh
Dickinson College while continuing his work in radio.
O'Neill, Jr. was married three times.
His first wife was Mary Elizabeth Greene ("Betty"), whom he
married on 15 June 1931 while an undergraduate student at Yale. He and
Betty were divorced in April 1937, and on 25 May, O'Neill, Jr. married
Janet Hunter Longley, who was the daughter of a Yale mathematics
professor; they were divorced in the summer of 1938. On 3 July 1939,
O'Neill, Jr. married Sally (Hayward?), whose mother, Marjorie F.
Hayward, was the curator at the Pardee Morris House in New Haven,
Connecticut. During that summer, he and Sally visited Eugene O'Neill and
Carlotta Monterey O'Neill at Tao House in California, as well O'Neill,
Jr.'s childhood friend, Lois Williams Bry and her family in Ennis,
Montana. In April 1944, Sally left O'Neill, Jr. and moved to New York
City. He himself moved to New York City in the fall. Four years later,
in the summer of 1948, O'Neill, Jr. moved to Woodstock, New York with
the art agent Ruth Reade Lander. He increasingly relied on alcohol, and
his relationships with others became more difficult. O'Neill, Jr.
committed suicide on 25 September 1950 in Woodstock, New York.
In addition to published articles (on
Greek metrics and Greek drama) and reviews, O'Neill, Jr. edited with
Whitney J. Oates The Complete Greek Drama: All the Extant Tragedies
of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the Comedies of Aristophanes
and Menander, in a Variety of Translations, which was published in
1938. Some of his radio credits include the programs "Invitation to
Learning" and the "Author Meets the Critic." He also
recorded books for the blind.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
The Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Collection
contains correspondence, writings of Eugene O'Neill, Jr., legal
documents, course materials, ephemera, and photographs. The dates of the
collection span the years 1862 to 1964, but the bulk of the material is
from 1932 to 1950. The collection is housed in fourteen boxes and is
organized into four series: Correspondence, Writings, Personal
Papers, and Photographs.
Series I, Correspondence,
is organized into two subseries: Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Correspondence, and
Correspondence Regarding Eugene O'Neill, Jr.'s Estate. The Eugene
O'Neill, Jr. Correspondence mainly contains letters to O'Neill, Jr.,
although there are some carbons of letters from him. Most of the
correspondence is of a professional nature, relating to his work in
classical studies and in radio. There is some personal correspondence,
however, including many letters from his father, Eugene O'Neill, from
1928 to 1950 (folders 26-35). There is also correspondence with Barbara
Burton (Agnes Boulton's daughter), Mary Elizabeth Greene (O'Neill, Jr.'s
first wife), Elsie and Frank S. Meyer (friends and neighbors of O'Neill,
Jr. in Woodstock, New York), and Norman Holmes Pearson (O'Neill, Jr.'s
Yale classmate and friend). The subseries is arranged alphabetically.
Correspondence Regarding Eugene O'Neill,
Jr.'s Estate relates to O'Neill, Jr.'s funeral and the settlement of his
estate. Eugene O'Neill paid for the funeral expenses through his lawyer,
Winfield E. Aronberg. Some of the correspondence in this series is
between Aronberg and other people (including Pitt-Smith's lawyer,
Nathaniel J. Palzer) regarding these expenses. There is also
correspondence between Frank S. Meyer and other people about
funeral-related expenses and about the disposition of O'Neill, Jr.'s
belongings.
Series II, Writings,
is organized into six subseries: Articles, Lectures, Poems, Reviews,
Other Writings, and Writings of Others. Each subseries is arranged
alphabetically. Articles contains drafts and printed versions of
articles by O'Neill, Jr. mainly on topics in the field of classical
studies. Lectures contains holograph and typescript drafts of notes for
lectures, also mainly on topics in the field of classical studies. The
files include lectures that O'Neill, Jr. delivered at the American
Philological Association, the Classical Club of Yale University, Vassar
College, and Wellesley College. There is also a printed version of his
1947 commencement address at Connecticut College. Poems mainly contains
draft versions of poems by O'Neill, Jr. The published poems are mostly
early works that appeared in The Horace Mann Quarterly; there is
one published poem from The New Yorker in 1950.
Reviews contains clippings as well as
reprints of reviews by O'Neill, Jr. of books in classics. Many are
inscribed by O'Neill, Jr. to friends and relatives. Other Writings
contains a play, two short stories, letters to the editor of The Key
Reporter and PM, O'Neill, Jr.'s successful submission for the
Noyes-Cutter Prize as an undergraduate at Yale University, a research
paper, a transcript from a 1944 radio discussion on the talmud, and some
notes. Writings of Others contains Thomas Cutt's 1936 dissertation,
inscribed to O'Neill, Jr.; a 1923 burlesque play by O'Neill's Jr.'s
teacher at the Horace Mann School, Clifton Joseph Furness; and two
printed copies (from 1925 and 1926) of The Horace Mann Quarterly.
Series III, Personal
Papers, is organized into three subseries: Legal Materials,
University Study and Teaching, and Other. Each subseries is arranged
alphabetically. Legal Materials contains a 1912 document regarding
Eugene O'Neill's divorce from Kathleen Pitt-Smith; O'Neill, Jr.'s 1948
lease for a house in Woodstock, New York; receipts for his bank loans
from 1947 to 1949; and his 1947 will. University Study and Teaching
contains materials regarding O'Neill, Jr.'s undergraduate and graduate
studies at Yale University, including commencement programs, grade
reports, and certificates for awards that he received. There are also
materials from 1932 to 1933 regarding his graduate study in Germany at
Universitaet Freiburg im Breisgau, as well as syllabi and examinations
from courses that O'Neill, Jr. taught at Yale University and at the New
School for Social Research. Other contains various emphemera, including
O'Neill, Jr.'s address book; some autobiographical notes; two photostats
of his birth certificate; clippings about him and other topics; a typed
list (probably made by Elsie Meyer) of inscriptions to him from his
father; a list of people who received items from his estate; materials
relating to the Pardee Morris House; a scrapbook of clippings and
photographs, mostly relating to O'Neill, Jr.'s radio career, from 1945
to 1946; and his wallet, containing various identification cards.
Series IV, Photographs,
is organized into five subseries: Family, Other People, Places, Albums,
and Other. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically and then
chronologically. In addition to photographic prints, there are negatives
in this collection (though stored separately). In the case of negatives
for which there was no corresponding print, the Library had one copy
print made; this information is specified after the folder title.
Family contains photographs of O'Neill,
Jr.'s maternal great-grandfather, Henry S. Camblas; his first wife, Mary
Elizabeth Greene; his maternal grandmother, Kate Camblas Jenkins; his
stepmother, Carlotta Monterey O'Neill; his father, Eugene O'Neill; his
third wife, Sally O'Neill; his stepbrother, George Pitt-Smith, Jr.; and
his mother, Kathleen Pitt-Smith. There are also many photographs of
O'Neill, Jr. himself, from 1922 until the late 1940s. Other People
contains photographs of O'Neill, Jr.'s friend, Lois Williams Bry, her
husband, and her children; the Coleman Brothers musicians; and the art
agent Ruth Reade Lander. There are a few unidentified people. Places
contains photographs of Germany, the Netherlands, and Iceland from
O'Neill, Jr.'s time in graduate school, from 1932 to 1933. There are
also photographs of Lois Williams Bry's ranch in Ennis, Montana in 1939;
of a boat trip near Northport, New York that O'Neill, Jr. took in the
early 1930s; and of the Pardee Morris House.
Albums consists of four albums from the
1920s to 1940. The first, from the 1920s to the 1930s, contains
photographs of scenes at a military academy (location undetermined) and
around Northport, New York, as well as copies of photographs of Eugene
O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey O'Neill that were sent to O'Neill, Jr. The
second and third albums, which are from O'Neill, Jr.'s trip to Europe in
1932-1933 to attend graduate school in Germany, contain views in
Germany, Iceland, and the Netherlands. The fourth album is from 1937 to
1940 and contains photographs from O'Neill, Jr.'s visit to the Brys'
ranch in Ennis, Montana in 1939, plus earlier photographs with the Brys,
from 1937 to 1938. There are also photographs from his visit with Eugene
O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey O'Neill at Tao House in 1939, as well as
many photographs of cats in New Haven, Connecticut in 1940. Other
contains photographs of house cats; of O'Neill, Jr.'s Soldiers Memorial
Foote Fellowship certificate, which he received at Yale University in
1932; of animals at a German zoo; and of a drawing of boats. |
