NOBEL PULITZER PLAYWRIGHT EUGENE O’NEILL SIGNED BOOK STRANGE INTERLUDE #739/775

Description: Here’s a Very Scarce Limited First Edition #739/775 Antiquarian Book Signed by Prominent American Author and Playwright EUGENE O’NEILL (1888 – 1953) FAMOUS AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT – AWARDED THE 1936 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE, and THE ONLY PLAYWRIGHT TO WIN FOUR PULITZER PRIZES FOR DRAMA. O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. The majority of his plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. HERE’S A LIMITED FIRST EDITION NUMBERED COPY OF O’NEILL’S STRANGE INTERLUDE Published by Boni & Liveright, New York, 1928 Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience. Hardcover. Condition: Very Fine. Limited Edition. Number 739 of 775 copies signed by the author. Text printed in blue and black on all-rag watermarked paper. Full vellum or parchment, leather label. Covers mottled as usual. A clean tight copy with no marks or inscriptions, save a small bookplate from the library of “Frank J. Hogan,” well known book collector. Beautifully Signed by Author. Priced by other professional book dealers from $250-$600 <> About Strange Interlude Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience. O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925; he wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and completed its text for publication in January 1928, during the final rehearsals for its premiere performance. Strange Interlude opened on Broadway on January 30, 1928, with Lynn Fontanne in the central role of Nina Leeds. It was also produced in London at the Lyric Theatre in 1931. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927-1928. Because of its length, around five to six hours if uncut, the play has sometimes been produced with a dinner break or on consecutive evenings. The play's themes – a woman's sexual affairs, mental illness, abortion, and deception over paternity – were controversial in the 1920s. It was censored or banned in many cities outside New York. Plot summary The plot centers on Nina Leeds, the daughter of a classics professor at a college in New England, who is devastated when her adored fiancé is killed in World War I, before they have a chance to consummate their passion. Ignoring the unconditional love of the novelist Charles Marsden, Nina embarks on a series of sordid affairs before determining to marry an amiable fool, Sam Evans. While Nina is pregnant with Sam's child, she learns a horrifying secret known only to Sam's mother: insanity runs in the Evans family and could be inherited by any child of Sam's. Realizing that a child is essential to her own and to Sam's happiness, Nina decides on a "scientific" solution. She will abort Sam's child and conceive a child with the physician Ned Darrell, letting Sam believe that it is his. The plan backfires when Nina and Ned's intimacy leads to their falling passionately in love. Twenty years later, Sam and Nina's son Gordon Evans is approaching manhood, with only Nina and Ned aware of the boy's true parentage. In the final act, Sam dies of a stroke without learning the truth. This leaves Nina free to marry Ned Darrell, but she declines, choosing instead to marry the long-suffering Charlie Marsden, who proclaims that he now has "all the luck at last." The meaning of the title is suggested by the aging Nina in a speech near the end of the play: "Our lives are merely strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father!" The booklet measures 6" x 9" and is in very fine condition. <> BIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE O’NEILL American playwright. O’Neill’s poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century. O”Neill was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature. O'Neill is also the only playwright to win four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. I am a proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society and the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) (member name: John Lissandrello). I subscribe to each organizations' code of ethics and authenticity is guaranteed. ~Providing quality service and historical memorabilia online for over 25 years.~ WE ONLY SELL GENUINE ITEMS, i.e., NO REPRODUCTIONS, FAKES OR COPIES!

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