Eugene O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888, in New York City to James and Mary Ellen O'Neill. The O'Neill's led a transient life as the family followed James's stage career. James was a celebrated actor who became famous for his performance in The Count of Monte Cristo. The constant traveling and the life of the theatre caused tensions between O'Neill's parents, which were exacerbated by Mary's addiction to morphine, a habit she started after her son's difficult delivery. Their decidedly dysfunctional family had an enormously negative effect on Eugene and his brother Jamie. After surviving his expulsion from Princeton, a suicide attempt, a bout of tuberculosis, and a failed marriage, O'Neill determined to devote his life to writing for the theatre. Familial tensions would become the subject of several of O'Neill's plays, including his most successful, Long Day's Journey into Night and Anna Christie.

In 1914, with his...