In the following excerpt from a review of Long Day's Journey into Night that originally appeared in the New York Times on November 8, 1956, Atkinson applauds both the play and the production, asserting: "Long Day's Journey into Night has been worth waiting for. It restores the drama to literature and the theatre to an."

As drama critic for the New York Times from 1925 to 1960, Atkinson was one of the most influential reviewers in America.

With the production of Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Helen Hayes last evening, the American theatre acquires size and stature.

The size does not refer to the length of Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical drama, although a play three and three-quarter hours long is worth remarking. The size refers to his conception of theatre as a form of epic literature.

Long Day's Journey Into Night is like a Dostoevsky novel in which Strindberg had...