later life. The couple settled in Danville, Califor-
nia, where O’Neill became a reclusive figure.
His career as a playwright began formally in
1914, following a suicide attempt and bout with
tuberculosis. The PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS,a
troupe founded in 1915 by Susan Glaspell and
George Cram, produced his earliest works. Based
first in Massachusetts, the troupe later developed a
site in GREENWICHVILLAGE. O’Neill joined the
group and became one of its most prolific and fre-
quently produced writer members. During the
Harlem Renaissance era, O’Neill won the Pulitzer
Prize three times, in 1920, 1922, 1928. He was
awarded the Pulitzer again in 1958. In 1936 the
accomplished writer won the Nobel Prize for Liter-
ature. He died in BOSTONin November 1953.
O’Neill is recognized by scholars as a writer
whose attention to racial matters in his work and
the opportunities and talents of African-American
performers made important advances in the field.
Works such as The Dreamy Kid(1919), THEEM-
PEROR JONES(1920), and ALLGOD’s CHILLUN
GOTWINGS(1923) included integrated casts, fea-
tured African Americans in lead roles, and pre-
sented audiences with new, and sometimes
controversial, scenarios such as interracial mar-
riage and unapologetic black nationalism. Like
PAUL GREEN, O’Neill was one of several well-
known white playwrights who explored African-
American life and experiences in their works.
O’Neill’s play The Emperor Jonesfeatured PAUL
ROBESONin the 1925 production and represented
one of the earliest leading roles for an actor of
African descent in an American play. The per-
former Charles Gilpin, after whom the respected
Gilpin Players of the well-known Cleveland,
Ohio-based KARAMU HOUSEwere named, also
starred in The Emperor Jonesand helped to ad-
vance opportunities for other actors of color.
The author of such compelling modern
tragedies as The Iceman Comethand Long Day’s
Journey into Nightdied of pneumonia in November
- He was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery
in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bibliography
Gelb, Arthur, and Barbara Gelb. O’Neill.New York:
Harper & Row, 1974.
Manheim, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Eu-
gene O’Neill. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998.
Maufort, Marc. Eugene O’Neill and the Emergence of
American Drama.Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1989.
Moorton, Richard Jr., ed. Eugene O’Neill’s Century: Cen-
tennial Views on America’s Foremost Tragic Dramatist.
New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.One Way to HeavenCountee Cullen(1932)
The first and only novel by COUNTEE CULLEN.
Published in February 1932 by HARPER&BROTH-
ERS, the book was referred to as “a Harlem story.”
The novel revolves around church, faith, religious
hypocrisy, and social pressures. The hero, Sam
Lucas, is a manipulative itinerant who habitually
seeks out revivals, pretends to abandon his sinful
habits of gambling and fighting, and then takes ad-
vantage of the welcoming congregation. On New
Year’s Eve he tries his luck again. On this occasion,
the presiding minister sees through Lucas’s pre-
tense but, in the interest of honoring the genuine
conversions of the moment, decides not to expose
the faithless impostor. Sam wins the heart of Mat-
tie, a woman of great and earnest faith. Their wed-
ding, organized by Constancia Brandon, a polished
social leader and RADCLIFFECOLLEGEgraduate, is
a high point of the season. Yet, neither Sam nor
the minister is willing to reveal what they know
about Sam’s true state because they do not want to
threaten her faith. Sam is unable to maintain him-
self as an upright believer and is ultimately mor-
tally wounded. When he hears that Mattie will be
comforted only if she knows that he is saved, he
makes one final false testament of faith in order to
please his wife.
Reviewed in THENEWYORKTIMES, One Way
to Heavenwas praised for its “convincing picture
of life in Harlem” and for its “amusing and bril-
liant” sketches of HARLEM’s diverse community.
New York Timesreviewer Elizabeth Brown mused
that “it must always be a difficult task to interpret
one’s own race to another; and though a novelist’s
work is written as a novel and not as an interpre-
tation, yet it is almost unavoidable that a white
reader, knowing Mr. Cullen’s reputation, should
look at it from that point of view” (NYT, 28
February 1932, BR7).404 One Way to Heaven