Apparently destined for a life in the theatre, Eugene O'Neill was not only born the son of an extremely popular American stage actor, James O'Neill (1846-1920); he was also literally born on Broadway— October 16, 1888—in the since demolished Barrett House family hotel on Broadway and Forty-third Street (the area presently called Times Square), while James O'Neill was touring in his most famous role as the Count of Monte Cristo. O'Neill's childhood and adolescence were mostly unhappy because of his unstable family life, and many of his plays, especially his most famous play, Long Day's Journey into Night (1956), focused on disturbed, dysfunctional families.

O'Neill's formal schooling culminated in very brief stints at both Princeton and Harvard. His short stay at Princeton included a two-week suspension in 1907 for an act of drunken vandalism. After a short and unsuccessful first marriage, O'Neill's next few years included a mining expedition...