1888-1953. US playwright, the leading
dramatist between World Wars I and II. His
plays include Anna Christie 1922, Desire
under the Elms 1924, The Iceman Cometh 1946,
and the posthumously produced
autobiographical drama Long Day's Journey
into Night 1956 (written 1940). Nobel prize
for Literature 1936. O'Neill was born in New
York. He had varied experience as gold
prospector, sailor, and actor. Other plays
include Beyond the Horizon 1920, The Great
God Brown 1925, Strange Interlude 1928 (which
lasts five hours), Mourning Becomes Electra
1931 (a trilogy on the theme of Orestes from
Greek mythology; see Agamemnon), and A Moon
for the Misbegotten 1947 (written 1943).