Eugene O'Neill

An item at American Writers Museum

A restless young man, Eugene O'Neill left Princeton University after only a year to work and travel. He prospected for gold in Honduras, went to sea, and spent time in Argentina and South Africa until, exhausted, he was hospitalized for six months. During his recuperation, he began to write. Five years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Beyond the Horizon (1918).

O'Neill's plays explore fraught family relationships and dreams that will never come true, as in The Iceman Cometh (1946) and the autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night (1956). Rooted in social realism and psychologically probing, his work was as revolutionary as it was masterful.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum