Description:

Eugene O'Neill ALS to Irish Poet Padraic Colum About Ireland

A 1p autograph letter signed by American playwright Eugene O'Neill (1889-1968) as "Cordially, Eugene O'Neill" at lower right. Written on July 10, 1924 at O'Neill's home Brook Farm in Ridgefield, Connecticut. On a single leaf of stationery printed "Brook Farm / Ridgefield, Connecticut" at the letterhead. Expected wear including light overall toning, isolated foxing, minor transmittal paper folds, and a few extra wrinkles and slightly bent corners. Partially erased pencil inscriptions found in the upper left corner, else near fine. 8.5" x 11." Housed in a handsome green marbled custom clamshell case with gilt leather spine reading "O'Neill / Letter to / Colum." The case measures 9.5" x 12.25" x 1."

O'Neill wrote this letter to Padraic Colum (1881-1972), an Irish poet, playwright, novelist, and folklorist closely associated with the Irish Literary Revival Movement and Dublin's Abbey Theatre intellectual circle. Colum, a friend of W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory, and other notables of the Irish Renaissance, had met O'Neill through the American sculptor Edmund Thomas Quinn.

O'Neill wrote in part:

"Dear Padraic Colum:

I've been working so hard that I've completely forgotten to answer your letter and acknowledge the arrival of 'Exiles' and 'Stolen Waters'. There has been no chance to read them yet but I will as soon as we get settled in Provincetown, whither I'm bound tomorrow.

The 'History of Ireland' came this morning. I am immensely pleased with the gift and look forward to reading it. Much gratitude to you!

As for Ireland, it doesn't look much like it this year. My paternal estate, which I hoped would be settled, still is clenching in the lawyers' glittering jowls, and I have a suspicion it is they who will vacation abroad, if anyone does…"

O'Neill and Colum had much in common: they were both writers of Irish blood. O'Neill's father, James O'Neill (1847-1920) had immigrated to the United States from County Kilkenny, Ireland. His mother Mary Ellen Quinlan (1857-1922) was the daughter of Irish immigrants from neighboring County Tipperary.

Of the books that O'Neill mentions Colum having sent to him, the first is readily identifiable; this was almost certainly James Joyce's "Exiles: A Play in Three Acts," published in 1918. Padraic Colum had written the introduction for his friend's only play.

Eugene O'Neill's heritage was on his mind in the summer of 1924 for another reason. His "paternal estate" still languished in probate court some four years after the death of James O'Neill, the late nineteenth-century matinee idol best known for his stage portrayal of the Dumas anti-hero the Count of Monte Cristo. O'Neill was the sole heir of his father's considerable estate, made sizable not only by his father's acting proceeds, but by James's prescient ranching and gold investments.

Eugene O'Neill lived at Brook Farm, or 845 North Salem Road in Ridgefield, Connecticut, between ca. 1922-1927. He was miserable there, but also extremely productive, writing at least five plays including "Desire Under the Elms" (1924).

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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