By Women Possessed

by Arthur Gelb

  he couldn’t bear to lose her love. 12/29/26, Yale, SL.

  “Haven’t you an answer, Dear One?” Ibid.

  “I am going to drink fifty lime squashes watching the new year in.” “TTWWF,” Beinecke.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  he told Kenneth Macgowan in mid-January, letter, 1/12/27, “TTWWF,” Beinecke.

  for time to finish his life’s work. notebook at Beinecke entitled “Eugene G. O’Neill, Old Peaked Hill Bar, Mass.” The notebook is in YCAL MSS 123, Box 77, Folder 1426: (Ideas, scenarios, & notes for plays), holograph, in notebook, 1920s–30s.

  bring him around to committing himself to her. letter, EO to CM, 2/10/27, Yale, SL.

  “but now Carlotta leaves me and becomes a dream.” Ibid.

  “all caved in as if some vampire had been ‘scoffing’ my life up!” 3/4/27, Yale, SL.

  “He is my sort.” 3/27/27, Yale, SL.

  Agnes had “gone off somewhere.” A/BG interviews with the Lights.

  “that gave people the impression he may not have been paying attention to his children, but actually he was terribly attached to them.” A/BG interview with Breuer.

  “He was delighted.” A/BG interviews with ESS.

  when a truck crashed into her taxi. O’Neill had been so much moved by ESS’s intuitive portrait of him in “Man with a Mask” that—after warning she must “never write or tell anyone about it”—he confided what he called “the whole story” of his mother’s drug addiction and its effect on his life.

  she enjoyed going to cocktail parties, Ibid.

  Agnes was “foolishly overconfident of him.” Ibid.

  “I judged it one of the greatest plays of all time.” The Magic Curtain, and A/BG interview with LL.

  (Cornell subsequently did turn it down.) WD, 3/23/27, & interviews with LL.

  he was “in a bad way with no prospects.” 3/24/27, “TTWWF.”

  she “simply couldn’t stand any more talk about the theater.” A/BG interviews with ESS.

  “I would have liked to let this play rest for a couple of months more at least and then go over it before submitting it to anyone, but as you told me you are now in the midst of plans for next season, I am taking a chance on its present form.” 4/4/26, copy of letter, Tao House Library.

  others felt it needed serious cutting. A/BG interview with LL.

  “If we fail to do this great experiment, if we lack the courage and the vision, then we should forever hang our heads in shame.” The Magic Curtain.

  her father, now dying of tuberculosis. EO to GJN, 4/24/27, As Ever, Gene.

  than ever before in their married life. 4/15/27, Yale, SL.

  she wanted “no more the responsibility of the home.” 4/30/27, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  “‘Dead for a Ducat, dead!’ as Hamlet says.” 4/16, 4/17, & 4/18/27, Harvard, SL.

  “so I could tell you how much I love you!” 4/17/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  “Your financial status will pick up about October.” 4/21/27, Harvard “Wind.”

  until she came home and life got back to normal. 4/22/27, Harvard, SL.

  might copy the technique before Interlude opened. 5/1/27, Yale, SL.

  “I love you and I don’t love anyone else and that’s all there is to it.” 5/15/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  for dinner as well. WD, 5/17 to 5/23/27.

  “what lay behind the apparent simplicity of that amazing flight, behind its clean-cut success, its almost poetic precision.” A/BG interview with Theresa Helburn, and The Saturday Review of Literature, Nov. 1927.

  “I have often thought that Gene is a good deal of a lone eagle in his chosen field—daring new and, God knows, long enough flights on his dramatic Pegasus.” Ibid.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  ready to pronounce it “finally finished.” WD.

  “It is such a tepid, lukewarm ocean now, there is no life or sting to it.” EO to CM, 7/15/27, Yale, SL.

  making that novel-play seem “a mere shallow episode!” letter to GJN, 8/26/28, As Ever, Gene.

  he said, “it will be just that.” 4/27/28, “TTWWF.”

  to “give up the comfort of the return to Mother Death.” Notebook at Beinecke entitled “Eugene G. O’Neill, Old Peaked Hill Bar, Mass.” The notebook is in YCAL MSS 123, Box 77, Folder 1426: (Ideas, scenarios, & notes for plays), holograph, in notebook, 1920s–30s.

  “The sea is a woman to me . . . pagan and physically exultant.” 12/29/26, Yale, SL.

  for the far-off autobiographical Long Day’s Journey Into Night. a typed transcript of the penciled diagram is in Beinecke.

  of O’Neill’s journey into night. Like the 1925 Scribbling Diary, the document was among the papers O’Neill left behind in Bermuda when he parted from Agnes, and (along with the SD) either overlooked by the lawyer sent by O’Neill to retrieve them, or deliberately withheld by Agnes. After her death in 1968, the document was loaned by her daughter, Oona O’Neill Chaplin, to O’Neill biographer Louis Sheaffer. In a letter from LS to Oona, 9/27/84, he states he has sold the document (presumably with her approval) to the prominent private collector, Dr. Harley J. Hammerman of St. Louis, who provided a copy to A/BG.

  “It was right after that Papa and Jamie decided they couldn’t hide it from me any more.” A/BG interviews with CM & ESS, to whom EO told the story; and A/BG interview with JQ to whom CM relayed additional details.

  believing him too young to be told the truth. Ibid.

  why impose it on him? Ibid.

  on the stone plaza fronting the house. “The Wind Is Rising,” edited by William Davies King (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 2000).

  “The alcoholic days were much pleasanter!” 8/29/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  would also have to wait for a January opening. letter, EO to AB, 9/4/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  advised her not to “worry about anything!” Harvard, SL, & WD.

  signing himself “Your Gene.” 9/11/27, Harvard, SL.

  “This does not mean I am trying to force you into a love affair!” 9/9?/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  “God damn it,” she fumed, “if you knew how damned bored and lonely I was here—never mind, I think I’ll pack up & arrive in New York, kids & all—then we’ll see how that will work.” 9/13?/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  “(Love not drink).” Ibid.

  “Damn you anyhow Gene—something must be all wrong for you to say such things.” Ibid.

  Carlotta, she wrote, “is certainly much more beautiful than I am.” Ibid.

  circulated for years among island contemporaries of the O’Neills. Eugene O’Neill and Family, The Bermuda Interlude (University of Toronto Press, Inc., 1992).

  putting her on the next boat out of Bermuda. Ibid.

  thus “wounding an old woman who has been a good friend to us, if there ever was one.” c. 4/8/28, Harvard, SL.

  succumbed to the handsome Spithead carpenter. AB mentioned various negotiations with Johnston in several of her letters to O’Neill during Sept. and Oct. 1927.

  enabling him to celebrate the occasion with Carlotta. miscellaneous letters and cables exchanged between EO and AB, 9/29 to 10/12/27, Virginia, Harvard, Yale, SL, and “Wind.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “But it wasn’t until later that year, in November or December during rehearsals of Marco Millions and Strange Interlude, that he talked to me about divorcing Agnes.” A/BG interview with LL.

  he returned to Bermuda on October 19. letter, EO to CM, 10/24/27, Yale, SL.

  he had said “nothing at all” to Agnes. letter, 10/24/27, Yale, SL.

  awake and “able to see the room, and Gene all the time.” letter, winter 1927, Harley Hammerman, eOneill.com collection.

  get rid of it “even at a loss.” 11/27?/27, Harvard, SL.

/>   convinced the set was complete. 12/2?/27, Harvard, SL.

  pursue her life “in whatever freedom you desire as I am with mine.” 12/9/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  “You haven’t for a long time.” 12/20/27, Harvard, SL.

  live with Agnes even were she willing. 12/26/27, Harvard, SL.

  if their roles were reversed. 12/26/27, Harvard, SL.

  “no love, however strong, can continue to endure and live.” Ibid.

  when next she came to New York. Ibid.

  claimed it “seemed impossible for the kids to be left here alone” letter, 9/4?/27, Harvard, “Wind.”

  help O’Neill keep his balance. A/BG interview with KM.

  found it expedient to forgive him. A/BG interviews with CM & KM.

  it could not possibly be with his child. letter, EO to Weinberger, 4/22/28, Yale, SL.

  “I think he kissed me goodbye, too,” said Barbara. letter to AG from BB.

  during her final two days at the Wentworth. letter, 1/19/27, Harvard, SL.

  “and the neighbor had instructed his butler to shoot the dog.” BB letter to AG, and Eugene O’Neill and Family, The Bermuda Interlude.

  attributing this incident to her father’s depressive personality. “More of a Long Story,” and A/BG interviews with SO.

  “He left us all for that woman he met in Maine.” Ibid.

  “You’ll get to be such a good swimmer that one of these days I expect you’ll turn into one of ‘them yaller grunts’ yourself and swim out and leave us, and then we’ll have to set the fish pot to catch you and bring you home again!” Sept.? 1927, Harvard, SL.

  to get her “put safely away.” letter, early Feb. 1928, Yale, “Wind.”

  “Jimmy told me once that Agnes was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen,” said Murray. A/BG interview with Murray.

  “He was a very charming man.” A/BG interviews with Ullman.

  in his phrase, be “caught in flagrante.” letter, 7/2/28, Yale, SL.

  each consented “to live as though unmarried.” 2/17/29, NY American Magazine.

  Agnes entrained for Reno. NYT, 3/12/29.

  had not yet begun writing her memoir. Wylie’s notes are at the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University. He declined to share these notes with A/BG until after Agnes’s death in 1968, and at that time, in discussions at his apartment with A/BG, he reiterated their accuracy.

  for his novel Trouble in the Flesh. (Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1959).

  PART III: MISTRESS, SECRETARY, WIFE, AND MOTHER

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “We can’t believe we are free.” CM diary, 7/3/29.

  egotistical nature “couldn’t stand the idea of her marrying someone even more celebrated than himself.” A/BG interviews with CVV.

  asking them to “give Carlotta my love.” Ibid.

  “I told him I couldn’t go to a man’s house as a guest and hand his wife a love letter from another man.” A/BG interview with Gish.

  leave them “in peace & ignorance of her existence, her plans or her life!” CM to SC, postmarked “July 13, 1929.”

  “Don’t forget me.” 3/14/29, University of Virginia, SL.

  trying out for the freshman crew at Yale.” Ibid.

  “Life laughs with love!” CM diary, 7/22/29.

  “You are my laughter—and I am yours.” CM diary, 7/16/38.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Eugene O’Neill at home.” 7/23/29.

  “Thank God!” CM diary, 7/20/29.

  “America has had a bellyful of my stuff for a while,” he told friends. A/BG interviews with JL, KM, & BDC, and article by Ward Morehouse, New York Sun, 5/14/30.

  until he was forgotten. 5/13/29, Texas University, SL.

  to achieve “a more mature outlook as an artist.” Ibid.

  “I’ve everything to back me up now,” he concluded, “love of the kind I’ve always wanted, security and peace.” Ibid.

  “Virtually decide on Mourning Becomes Electra as title—trilogy—with separate subtitle each play.” WD, 5/18/29.

  “But where to find that language?” 7/27/29, Library of Congress, SL.

  “So I’m going to do a lot more of tentative feeling out and testing before I start.” letter, 8/31/29, As Ever, Gene.

  two weeks in late August and early September. WD.

  “So all’s well.” 8/31/29, As Ever, Gene.

  Carlotta once protested. letter to DG, 5/23/59, Beinecke.

  and with it, she hoped, “the old parasites!” letters, 7/27 & 8/30/29, Princeton, “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  board “so arranged that it can be maneuvered in front of him and on it he rests his pad.” The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan.

  “I bought him various styles of each—but it was wasted money.” What Mad Pursuits! The pad was deposited by Carlotta in the O’Neill Collection at Yale shortly after O’Neill’s death.

  “All this in the pouring rain—we were really quite cut up about it,” Carlotta said. letter to SC, 6/9/29, Princeton, “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  She knows well the effect it has on him and quietly lays in a constantly replenished wardrobe for him.” The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan.

  “Blue ones.” Ibid.

  “There was never anything casual.” A/BG interviews with LG.

  advise both O’Neill and Carlotta by letter and cable after the crash. CM diary.

  in charge of the O’Neill collection at Yale. Pigeons on the Granite.

  “I leave about 12:30.” CVV, “Daybook,” 9/29/25, NY Public Library.

  “I think of a thousand beautifully mad things concerning you & me,—and get wild with excitement to get back to you.” 12/4/29, Yale.

  none other than Kenneth Macgowan. letter from CM to SC, reproduced in “Love and Admiration and Respect”; dated c. 11/15/29, but probably written Oct.

  necessitating a three-week stay in Paris, WD.

  “It should come with a rush from now on.” 11/12/29, SL.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  outlined his blueprint for Mourning Becomes Electra. CM diary, 5/11/29.

  “I have hopes, damn it!” 7/27/29, Library of Congress, SL.

  the “best possible dramatically for Greek plot of crime and retribution chain of fate—Puritan conviction of man born to sin and punishment.” MBE diary, April 1929, plus diary and other notes at Beinecke; the diary, from when EO began writing the play in “Spring, 1926” was published in its entirety in the limited edition of the play by Horace Liveright, Inc. Excerpts appeared in New York Herald Tribune, 11/8/31. The diary and other relevant material at Yale were later minutely recorded by Virginia Floyd in Eugene O’Neill at Work.

  “this fits in well and absolutely justifiable, not forced Greek similarity,” he noted. Ibid.

  in the center of New London. research by Sally Pavetti and Lois MacDonald, curators of restored Monte Cristo Cottage.

  “[Agamemnon’s] Puritan sense of guilt turning love to lust.” Ibid.

  Greek Electra was “the most interesting of all women in drama.” letter, EO to Robert Sisk, 8/28/30, Yale, SL.

  Such a character contained too much tragic fate within her soul to permit this—why should Furies have let Electra escape unpunished?” MBE Work Diary, Beinecke, Nov. 1928.

  “It befits—it becomes Electra to mourn—(it is her fate)—also, in usual sense (made ironical here), mourning (black) is becoming to her—it is the only color that becomes her destiny—”Electra MBE Work Diary.

  spiritually as well as physically, mourning had “suited” her. MBE Work Diary, 1926–1931, published by Horace Liveright, Inc. in the limited edition of the play and excerpted by the New York Herald Tribune, 11/8/31.

  “Even history of comparatively recent crimes (where they happen among people supposedly respec
table), shows rural authorities easily hoodwinked—poisoning of Mannon . . . would probably never be suspected (under same circumstances) even in New England town of today, let alone 1865.” Ibid.

  “partly a copper brown, partly a bronze gold, each shade distinct and yet blending with the other, beautiful hair that hangs down to her knees.” A/BG interview with CM.

  involved “a lot of hard labor—more than there was in Interlude.” 12/4/29, SL.

  “Not a gentleman’s idea of a welcome!” Carlotta quipped. CM diary.

  back home with his head down. A/BG interview with CM.

  “he behaved exactly as though he were worn out with having performed the duties of a good host.” A/BG interview with LG.

  “And I find I can get everything said about these characters’ souls, hearts, and loins that can be said.” 1/7/30, As Ever, Gene.

  realized that they, too, must go. WD.

  use of half masks must also be eliminated. WD.

  “He always has told me he lives through everything he writes—all his strength goes into work—which leaves him physically and emotionally exhausted.” CM diary.

  “with all my deepest love and gratitude for all you have meant to me!—and all your help!” Inscriptions.

  “It’s a beautiful country, but a terrible climate.” 5/22/31.

  “This love of mine is tortured by his search for peace—rest—!” CM diary, 1/18/30.

  “He wrote the plays, I did everything else.” A/BG interviews with CM & SP, NYT.

  was “all washed up and in need of a change of scene.” 3/28/30, “TTWWF,” Beinecke.

  about $82,000 in today’s currency. CM diary, 5/11/30.

  her “duty & happiness to help him.” A/BG interviews with CM, & CM diary entries.

  “—they’ll last him forever!” CM diary, 3/10/30.

  “very correct!” CM diary, 5/30/30.

  “He had a complete wardrobe and he was so pleased.” CM interview with SP, BA, & A/BG at NYT, 10/2/56.

  “And we feel perfect fools—but continue to laugh!” CM diary, 5/24/30.

  “I feel as if I wasn’t a total loss as an American delegate at large of the arts.” letter, EO to Madeleine Boyd, 5/19/30.

  “I would answer without hesitation: O’Neill.” NYT morgue, undated clipping.