I am so far from…

I am so far from being a pessimist…on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life.

– Eugene O’Neill

born in New York, New York, The United States December 13, 1901
died: November 27, 1953
gender: male
genre: Literature & Fiction, Theater
influences: Maxim Gorki

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was an American playwright who won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy.” More than any other dramatist, O’Neill introduced American drama to the dramatic realism pioneered by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg, and was the first to use true American vernacular in his speeches.

His plays involve characters who inhabit the fringes of society, engaging in depraved behavior, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O’Neill wrote only one comedy (Ah, Wilderness!): all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7680.Eugene_O_Neill