Remember We Had Just Had Some Argument Worried He Had Got Involved in Producing Side the Bed, and Sitting There, Me in My Underwear,’ He Said.”

nouncement, I’ve just written, said; and when he bent over to “Part of a Long Story,” by Ag- ‘The curtain falls’ as he finishes! kiss me good night, he kissed the nes Boulton, just published by “The Straw”. Some of the pages little black head, too, and I saw a Doubleday Company, has creat- of “Part of a Long Story” reflect real tenderness in his eyes.” ed a great stir in Provincetown. the happiness of the days when Everywhere people are reading the O’Neills lived in the John The book has released a torrent and talking about it, and no won- Francis building at the East End, of “remembrance of things past,’’ der. For the book captures the and at Peaked Hill, in the old life and this week we talked to Mary living, breathing atmosphere of saving station which Mabel I Heaton Vorse and Harry Kemp the old days” here, when the Dodge had previously owned and who were among the closest genius of the Provincetown Play- turned into a jewel of a house. friends of the O’Neill’s. Mrs. ers first burst upon the world, and Vorse had this revealing comment revolutionized the American thea- The Bad Days on O’Neill’s drinking and that of tre. The great and the near-great Some of the pages, too, reflect some others at the time. “Almost are alive in these pages, and most the bad days when O’Neill was on everybody drank too much during of all, of course, Eugene O’Neill, one of his drinking bouts; and Prohibition,” she said, “but there to whom Miss Boulton was mar- Miss Boulton is to be admired for was another side to it, so far as ried. the honesty and compassion with the old crowd is concerned. Every- The book begins with Miss which she speaks of them. What body worked hard-even the Boulton’s meeting O’Neill in compelled him to these bouts- drinkers were dedicated workers, Greenwich Village. A writer her- what compels any one? No one and Agnes Boulton‘s description yet has found the answer. Some self, she became one of the group ~ of the strict working routine which which centered about O’Neill, fell one once said, “The thing that Gene kept is completely accurate. in love with him, and came to makes the writer is the thing that It was kept by all of us, come rain Provincetown with him several makes the alcoholic.” The writ- or come shine.” Of Terry carlin, months later, where they were er’s life is a lonely one, shut up wih whom O’Neill lived before his married. The book is described in in a room with only his ideas and marriage to Agnes Boulton, Mrs. the sub-title as “Eugene O’Neill as a pen or a typewriter. Certainly Vorse said; “He was a beautiful a young man in love,” but it is O’Neill was always a lonely man, old man, a great conversational- much more the story of a young by nature and by choice; and ist. He had been a tanner, and woman in love. Agnes Boulton’s Miss Boulton, although obviously had been deprived of a patent by love for her husband shines from she had a hard time for part of his employer who made a fortune the pages, but the reader won- the story, never complains. she out of it. From that day on, Ter- ders if it were possible for O’Neill emerges from this book as a re- ry determined never to work again to have really loved any one. markable woman, perceptive, gen- for wages, and he never did.” Certainly, it appears that he loved erous minded, incapable of bitter- ness. Mabel Dodge, who first bought her as much as he was capable of the Peaked Hill station, came from loving, but the strange, tortured She writes beautifully, too-her a wealthy Buffalo family. She genius, of whom she has painted descriptions of Provincetown--the was a writer, and married the late ac extraordinary word portrait, harbor, the fog, the old elm trees Maurice Sterne, the famous paint- was a “taker” and not a “giver”. sighing in the wind, radiant morn- er, some of whose work is now be- Life among the writers and art- ings at Peaked Hill-are very fine. ing exhibited at the Art Associa- ists of the time in Greenwich Vil- And her vignettes of some of the tion and at the Shore Galleries. lage; life in Provincetown, where people who were in their group- Mrs. Vorse tells a delightful story the same group came to spend Mabel Dodge, Terry Carlin, Har- about them when they lived at Summers, and frequently Win- ry Kemp, Mary Heaton Vorse, Su- Peaked Hill. “One day, Maurice ters, is in the book. And in all san Glaspell and Jig Cook and and Mabel’s son, John Evans, were the comedies and tragedies, 0’- many others-are delightful. The caught in the undertow while they Neill is the star, against the back- book ends with the birth of the were Swimming, and Mabel, dis- ground of the beginning of his O’Neill’s son, Shane, and his par- tracted rushed down to the beach writing which was to lead him to ents delight in him. Here, again in the flowing garments she al- his place as America’s foremost’ ‘is a telling word picture of Dr. Ways wore. The Coast Guards- dramatist. We see him when he ~DanielH. Hiebert, who brought men went to the rescue, and first has the idea and begins work the baby into the world; “the among them was one man, who on “Anna Christie”; we hear Ag- I calm, smiling face of young Dr. had been sleeping, who rushed out agnesand Eugene O’Neill sat for picture by a very expensive dress which nes Boulton’s cry of delight when Daniel Hiebert, looking serene, as in his long underwear. she finishes reading the script of he moved about gently”. And at saw Mabel, he turned around and Edward Steichen in New York in 1926. didn’t quite like that day one of “The Moon of the Caribees”; and, the very end, here is Gene, him- ran back into the station. When‘Damn- those blue things. Gene seemed to he we hear O’Neill’s jubilant an- self. “He had pulled a chair be- ed if I’m going to let a female see remember we had just had some argument worried he had got involved in producing side the bed, and sitting there, me in my underwear,’ he said.” .

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