Unpublished O'Neill Plays Hold Mystery

The unpublished plays of the late Eugene O'Neill will eventually provide a deeper understanding of the recluse dramatist's personal and family problems, according to Brooks Atkinson '17, drama critic for the New York Times, and Harry Leo Kozol '27, clinical associate in Neurology, two of O'Neill's few close lifetime friends.

Atkinson, who terms O'Neill "America's greatest dramatist," first became acquainted with the playwright in 1920 and remained a lifelong friend. "The unpublished manuscript I know of," Atkinson explained, "is 'A Touch of the Poet', which is probably locked up in the Random House vault."

"I never asked to read it," he continued, "because I thought he would have volunteered to let me see it if he wanted me to. I do know that it deals with his family life and concerns people who are still alive, which is probably the reason he didn't want it published immediately."

Kozol, who served a double role as O'Neill's physician and "closest personal friend" during the later years of his life, explained that because of his unique relationship with the playwright he had been shown a copy of "Long Day's Journey Into Night," an autobiographical account of a day in O'Neill's youth. Kozol declined, however, to state the reasons behind O'Neill's request that this play also not be published.

"Long Day's Journey Into Night" is now the property of the dramatist's widow, Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, who lives in Boston. "She loves the reflected glory of being the wife of a recognized playwright," said Kozol.

"For the last two years of his life," Atkinson noted, "he was ill and saw almost nobody. Eugene O'Neill was a very reclusive person. But I was very much surprised by the shocking lack of sentiment at his death."

In a recent article, Atkinson characterized O'Neill as "a breeding mystic who dreamed of peace and beauty beyond anything he had personally experienced." The playwright himself once said, "I am not interested in plays which are merely about the relation of man to man. I am interested in nothing except the relation of man to God."

From 1914-15 O'Neill was a special student in the Drama here at the George Pierce Baker Workshop, at the same time Atkinson was an undergraduate. "America's greatest dramatist's" best known published plays include "Desire Under the Elms," "The Iceman Cometh," and "The Emperor Jones."

O'Neill died in a Boston hotel on Nov. 27, 1953