Eugene O’Neill and the Ashcan Artists

Eugene O’Neill lived with the artist George Bellows in the early twentieth century; met Robert Henri, the leader of the future Ashcan School; and knew John Sloan, who etched O’Neill at the Lincoln Arcade studio on Upper Broadway. These visual artists made a profound impression on the future playwright, and when O’Neill began writing plays in 1913, he drew upon the images he had first seen on canvas or paper.
This book presents the centrality of New York City on Eugene O’Neill’s imagination—the notorious Tenderloin section, Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Fifth Avenue, and Gramercy Park—and it does so through the brushes, pens, plates, and stones of the Ashcan artists. The sixty images herein reveal the shared aesthetic sensibilities between all the respective artists and foreground the honest, unflinching, and simple beauty that O’Neill sought to portray in all of his dramatic works: from the early one-acts with the Provincetown Players, to the Broadway blockbusters in the 1920s, and culminating with the posthumously-produced plays he wrote in near seclusion to conclude his career.

Zander Brietzke has taught at Lehigh University, The College of Wooster and Columbia University. He is also a former production assistant, stage manager, and assistant director. He lives in Decatur, Georgia.

Zander Brietzke
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: ca. 60 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9467-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5448-5
Imprint: McFarland

“Eugene O’Neill and the Ashcan Artists is a unique—and compelling—investigation of the ashcan artists’ influence on playwright Eugene O’Neill.  Packed with research and close readings of visual and literary materials, the manuscript is a fascinating study that takes us through key sites of cultural production, from the infamous Hell Hole bar to Penn Station. Brietzke places us in the scene by carefully describing a vibrant collective of writers, painters, anarchists, architects, and philosophers that constituted the Progressive Era. The manuscript is beautifully written, with compelling prose and intriguing details. The close readings of paintings are riveting, as is the dramatic analysis, making us see things anew. This is a book you will want on your shelf.”—Katie N. Johnson, PhD, Professor of English, Miami University