Happy Birthday Eugene O’Neill

-
Eugene O’Neill, one of the great American playwrights, was born on October 16, 1888 in New York City to parents Ella Quinlan and James O’Neill.


Winner of numerous Pulitzer prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, O’Neill spent much of his early life at Monte Cristo Cottage, the family’s summer home on Pequot Avenue in New London, CT.


O’Neill also spent considerable time in Massachusetts, taking a playwriting course at Harvard in 1914, then forming a troupe on Cape Cod called the Provincetown Players, which produced his play Bound East for Cardiff, in 1916.


In 1928, according to author Susan Wilson, O’Neill’s play, Strange Interlude, was banned in Boston, but played to a sell-out audience in Quincy.


O’Neill lived in California for many years, but moved back to Marblehead, MA in 1948, by which time he was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. He moved to Boston to be close to his physician, staying at the Hotel Shelton on Bay State Road, which is today a Boston University dormitory. He died on November 27, 1953, at the Hotel Shelton.


He is buried at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plains, a neighborhood of Boston.

For details on Irish-American heritage in Massachusetts, visit irishheritagetrail.com/.


For information on cultural activities in Massachusetts, visit irishmassachusetts.com/


References:


Literary Trail of Greater Boston by Susan Wilson for the Boston History Collaborative.


Eugene O'Neill Review




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

General Edward L. Logan, Namesake of Boston's Logan International Airport

-
Image
General Edward L. Logan (1875-1939), namesake of Boston’s Logan International Airport , died on July 6 1939 from a sudden 'heart ailment.'  His brother, Reverend Leo J. Logan, presided over the funeral mass at the Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston, with tributes by leading politicians like Senator David I. Walsh , former Massachusetts Governor and Boston Mayor James M. Curley and former Mayor John F. Fitzgerald .  Logan is buried at the Calvary Cemetery in West Roxbury.  A first generation Irish-American, military leader, civic leader and municipal judge with family roots in Galway and South Boston,  Edward was the oldest of nine children of Lawrence and Catherine (O’Connor), according to Michael Cummings of Milton, an expert on the Logan Family. Edward’s father Lawrence immigrated to Boston from Ballygar, County Galway, in 1858, and became a successful businessman at a young age when he became president of the Boston Brewing Company in South Boston.  The ...
Read more

Ten Bostonians Selected for Annual Business 100 Awards by Irish America Magazine in New York

-
Image
Photo: James Higgins Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024 Irish and Irish-American Business 100 , selected annually by Irish America Magazine , a national publication based in New York City. An event honoring the recipients was held on Monday, December 16, 2024 at the Metropolitan Club near Central Park. The magazine's co-publishers, Niall O'Dowd and Patricia Harty, served as masters of ceremony, and Mary Cucinell, VP of marketing and operations, organized the evening events for more than 300 guests, who came from across the US and from Ireland.  Keynote speakers were Managing Director and Head of Abbey Capital (US) Helen Doody and Vice President of BNY Global Financial Services Brian Ruane.  Ten business leaders from greater Boston were represented in the Business 100 in 2024, including: Jim Brett, President and CEO of the New England Council Sharon Cunningham, President & CEO of VICO Infrastructure Company  Kathleen McQuade Ellmore, Co-Founder an...
Read more

Boston Memorial Honors Social Activist Kip Tiernan, Founder of Rosie's Place and Greater Boston Food Bank

-
Image
Kip Tiernan, Photo courtesy of Rosie's Place The next time you are exploring Boston's Irish Heritage Trail , stop by the memorial to Kip Tiernan (1926-2011), social activist, writer, teacher, visionary and provocateur. The Kip Tiernan Memorial is located in Boston's Back Bay on Dartmouth Street between Newbury and Boylston streets, next to Old South Church, and honors her relentless fight for economic and social justice, and her special attention to helping homeless women. She is best known for founding Rosie’s Place on Easter Sunday in 1974, the first shelter in America to specifically address the issues confronting homeless women. What began as a place to distribute clothing and give out coffee, flowers and comfort became a year-round emergency program. Today, Rosie’s Place provides health care, legal advice, job opportunities, education, daycare and affordable housing, depending on the needs of each woman who enters. Rosie’s also functions as a full time advocacy group...
Read more