Ernest Poole's The Harbor as a Source for O'Neill's The Hairy Ape

Patrick Chura

Eugene O'Neill Review, Volume 33, Number 1, 2012, pp. 24-42 (Article)

Published by Penn State University Press

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/468303

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] Ernest Poole’s

The Harbor as a

Source for O’Neill’s

The Hairy Ape

Patrick Chura

During the summer of 1916 in Provincetown, Eugene O’Neill composed a brief three-stanza poem built around the conceit of the poet’s soul as a submarine, driven to self-concealment but stealthily assailing bourgeois ­arrogance and lethargy with spiritual torpedoes:

SUBMARINE

My soul is a submarine. My aspirations are torpedoes. I will hide unseen Beneath the surface of life Watching for ships, Dull, heavy-laden merchant ships, Rust-eaten, grimy galleons of commerce Wallowing with obese assurance, Too sluggish to fear or wonder, Mocked by the laughter of waves And the spit of disdainful spray.

I will destroy them Because the sea is beautiful.

That is why I lurk Menacingly In green depths.1

Eugene O’Neill Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2012 Copyright © 2012 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

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­variety editor writers. ­writers. - ­political allowing ­allowing ­eportedly emotional ­emotional anticapitalist ­anticapitalist Masses Masses established ­established under a near-identical Masses did publish the piece, they did not do so(it promptly Masses during a crucial phase of his artistic development. That the 2 potential and unrevealing as a measure of O’Neill’s actual O’Neill’s of measure a as unrevealing and ­potential Masses contributors. Anxious to impress this group, O’Neill self-fashioned The central figurative trope of “Submarine”—the metaphorical depiction depiction metaphorical “Submarine”—the of trope figurative central The When When he wrote the poem in 1916, O’Neill was a newcomer to the While While the advertising, ­advertising, the poem seemed an afterthought.Speculation aside about Eventually Eventually the soldier used an apt figureof speech to express his bitterness and subversion: “I am a submarine far he down,” said. Poole picked up on Ernest Ernest Poole that appeared in the April 1915 article describedPoole’s title, an “Submarines.” incident from his time as a in war correspondent early 1915, when he hitched a ride on a German troop train and shared a compartment with a German theater-loving The soldier. private—an admirer of Strindberg, Wilde, and Synge—hated the war but took great pleasure in discussing literature and modern drama with Poole. to the playwright not only read the journal likely the consider but we when traction gains that view also a is priorities and took ­matter cues from its subject the poem. for source of political as subversion a personified U-boat—is traceableto an article by Moreover, Moreover, the poem symbolizes something about O’Neill’s relationship avant-garde avant-garde journal. willingness O’Neill’s to espouse active, anarchism in along “Submarine,” playwright’s with beginning the the great suggests satisfaction accepted, he piece r the having at felt vulnerability among friends who were at the time more the work itself is probably less interesting publication. and ­composition than the circumstances of its regular of number a Eastman, with along included, that coterie ­Provincetown Masses a poetic alter ego that was calculated to mesh with the radical politics of the whether “submerging” the poem in a sea of marketing copy and the author to artist’s the of figuration remain its in naïve piece, slight a “stealthy” is was ­“Submarine” an intentional joke on destructive its theme, and sea the of beauty the ideas—about core its of some Though “aspirations.” the ugliness of industrial shipping, for example—appear in plays, O’Neill’s appeared ­appeared in the February 1917 issue), and the journal did not give it much chance of being noticed. Tucked away in the page-fold the on journal’s page end-matter, 43, near in a section of the magazine to given over mainly ­publication. O’Neill’s biographers mention O’Neill’s that he firstshowed thework to John Reed, who liked it and showed it to his Max Provincetown Eastman, neighbor, who made O’Neill very happy by accepting the poem for EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 25 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 26

26 the Eugene O’Neill Review o e derivative. be to it knew he that was belatedly and inconspicuously, anonymously, ­appear main as goal awar correspondent. his was submarines” for around “hunting that soldier the telling idea, this “Submarines” April inthe 1915 F the of pages the into introduced O’Neill—had he—not that metaphor charged mused, mergedof ocean this war,in submarines to these meet now and then,” sub- Poole feel you where . . . pleasant is “It submarines: more be will there is that piece the had of he close the realized at expressed killed”—Poole hope The get submarine. another who found fellows the are we And people. rich fat of lot a by started was war this that you tell quo—“I ­wartime status the and capitalism against caustically railed them of one When partment. was something special about Poole’sabout special something novel.was might have convincedjaded the been of by tributescollection this that there now,even is it as 1915 in standard as doubt no was marketplace literary the alost classic ofcalled American history, literary Ernest Poole’s unusually large and compelling advertisement for to be that a book deserves anappeared “Submarines”example,there forpublished, which was in issue the of readers andcontributors, editors, the to known well especially literature. in wasAmerican Poole of stars bright the of beginning one 1915 years few brief a for was he scholars, literature among even recognized universally not is Poole’s name today Though work? his upon it the in analogy submarine-as-subversion the novel produced by democracy.” new the the that prominentlybizarrebutundeniably impressive beginning the with accolade Poole’sit—published the allowofsell toitsaccoladesto reviewerswas book Ernest sell to way best the felt department publicity Company Macmillan ig. 1 ig. ass Wo a Ens Poe n wy ol ONil oie n draw and notice O’Neill would why and Poole Ernest was Who ­raises: Masses n wnes hte te esn ata alwd Sbaie to “Submarine” allowed Eastman reason the whether wonders One t hs on a ru o mdy natye codd no h com- the into crowded infantrymen muddy of group a point this At While ad copy extolling or exaggerating the importance of a product for concluding the article by stressing and reiterating the politically politically the reiterating and stressing by article the ­concluding New YorkNew Tribune . 3 4 u pras mr iprat ucm o taig back tracing of outcome important more a perhaps But Masses supplied in calling calling in supplied . 5 What at least is clear is that the the that is clear is least atWhat Masses The HarborThe lies in other questions other in lies Masses “The first notable first “The The Harbor . In the same the In . . 16/02/12 10:47 PM chura poole’s The Harbor as a Source 27 16/02/12 10:47 PM . Masses democracy,” ­democracy,” is all the more The Harbor . Masses in the May 1915 1915 in the May The Harbor The ­announced in a majestic tone. “It has come unmistakably in The ad’s chorus of praise for Poole and ig. 2 Edmond McKenna’s beatification of the novel “Of incourse it had to come—the the novel of the soul May of industrial 1915 McKenna ­extraordinary because it doesn’t include the most admiring of all reviews, F for Advertisement EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 27 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 28

28 the Eugene O’Neill Review Effectively, he made a case for immediate canonization of the novel as a as novel the of canonization immediate for case a made he Effectively, Harbor Harbor.’”‘The book, called intense McKenna and ­Ernest Poole’s varied will have to advance to another stage before a better book can be written written it.” about be can book better a before stage another to advance to democracy have will “Industrial fiction: American in point turning and landmark a ok f oe ad euy wrh o te hm i celebrates.” it theme the of worthy beauty, and power of book “a 6 Masses Edmond McKenna’s May inthe review 1915 F ig. 3 ig. . The 16/02/12 10:47 PM chura poole’s The Harbor as a Source 29 16/02/12 10:47 PM

­ , - - The The The The featured ­featured Harvard, ­Harvard, Dorothy Dorothy

and 8 The Harbor Masses The Sniper for seventeen consecutive months from 9 is a work that would have been read and .” TheHarbor TheHarbor The Harbor The , works directly concerned with current events in the is a culturally revealing, politically embedded novel Poole Obviously in this period. Of course, O’Neill have didn’t to read Eastman’s 7 from a list of luminaries including Theodore Roosevelt, William TheHarbor Thoughit appears thatErnest Poole andO’Neill Eugene did not have a During the two years following the 1915 publication of When Poole’s novel was published in early 1915, O’Neill was was at in published novel O’Neill early 1915, Poole’s When Masses concurrent concurrent events, some of which are now forgotten. The­textile 1912 strike—IWW Lawrence leader Bill Haywood’s greatest victory, a strike that and and finallyto “Thegreat novel ofTreatingAmerica” inthe 1917. novel this way actually said much about the fast-moving stages of the intense book’s vogue. short-lived but began writing in 1912, completed in 1914, 1915 to instant and acclaim. Themaking published of the book in was directly February influenced by of April 1915 to August 1916 and again for five months in 1917. It is is It also interest 1917. in months five for again and 1916 August to 1915 April ing that the description of the book changed over the period, going novel “A from of remarkable power and vision” in 1916, early early to 1915 1915 late from to discussing” is everyone “Ernest which novel new Poole’s splendid Players, Players, among whom we can place theautobi- book with Poole’s certainty. ography mentions that in 1915 he received letters of congratulation for ­Harbor Reed. John Lippman—and Walter Garland, Hamlin Howells, Dean discussed among O’Neill’s Village colleagues and the early Provincetown ferred ferred fiction, poetry, sociology, psychology, included a blurb history, about and philosophy— multiple multiple forms of publicity for the ­example—a book. regular section of the Thejournal that offered “Massesreaders a listof Bookpre Shop,” for number, and very likely the review of Poole’s book a month later. book a month very Poole’s the review and of likely number, personal they relationship, had a number of mutual friends including most and Europe in bothtime considerable spent Poole whom Reed,with notably New York. antiwar ­antiwar and prosocialist labor movements. This, coupled with the fact that was already a O’Neill friend of Reed, that he makes up kept it with probable the journal to learnbook; of it Poole’s was reviewed everywhere. But if O’Neill been have would it issue, April the in piece “Submarines” Poole’s noticed had same the in bestseller Poole’s for advertisement the notice to not him for hard writing writing plays for George Pierce Baker that included ­Personal Equation reading Ernest Poole’s Poole’s Ernest ­reading Day, Day, close to O’Neill in the 1910s, wrote in her autobiography that during the Village years the waterfront was New “made York more alive for me by through through the time submarine O’Neill’s poem appeared, the EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 29 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 30

30 the Eugene O’Neill Review a as ivle i te aesn tie aen, mvn reenactment moving a Pageant, Strike Paterson the in involved Poole also him. was with away more took and socialist prominent other any than more Paterson to came Poole Ernest strike, this During 1913. February in without shape workers’ stimulussilk the ofthe Paterson,in final strike NewJersey, began which taken have not could work the But book. the writing begin to action”—prompted Poole “direct of doctrine controversial the of opened up easternthe states to agitation through preachingthe and Praise for F igs. 4, 5, 6 5, 4, igs. The Harbor in the “Masses inthe Shop,” Book 1915–1917. ­practice 16/02/12 10:47 PM

chura poole’s The Harbor as a Source 31 16/02/12 10:47 PM The The

15 ­Socialist history. ­history. It 12 Like a number of 14 as “the best “the as A number of the founding 11 The Harbor The Theater nowgenerally scholars agree that the The bookPoole alludedto offers a detailed 10 13 made Poole famous, his career peaked when his next novel, novel, next his when peaked career his famous, Poole made Paterson ­Paterson strike, while Haywood was having dinner at Poole’s , won the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1918, an award that that award an 1918, in fiction for Prize Pulitzer first-ever the won , had a strong impact on the generation of radicals and progressives The Harbor The Critics from several eras have described have eras several from Critics While the makers of the pageant and later the Provincetowners novel novel of all,” the “best radical novel written ­fictional in of account thestrikePaterson by a participant.” the 1910s,” and “the best that that came of age just before the First and World War, its significance was not lost on major writers with leftist leanings, includingJohn DosPassos, Harbor episode in the history of the radical labor movement. treatment of economic and social conditions in New from York the 1880s to the outbreakWhile of thethe novel Great spansWar. decades, one of its chief merits is that it preserves in literary form a brilliant but short-lived pageant pageant sparked the development of American drama, preparing the way for the labor plays of the Players. Provincetown three three of which were produced) to help plan the logistics of the production. In newspaper accounts on the morning after thePoole pageant, was named as one of the “bright lights who worked up the show” and one of the four writers of the script. pageant of the events of the strike before an audience of 20,000 in Madison Square Garden. with Working John Reed and set designer Robert Edmond plays, Jones, dozen a written had he 1910 (before experience stage his on drew Poole members members of the Players—including, along with Reed, Jig Cook, and Susan Glaspell—were involved in or present at the pageant. Cook referred to it as “the first laborplay” and praised the“feeling of oneness” with thestrikers conveyed. had organizers pageant the other and Poole that copies copies and twenty-two printings in a ­translated into matter German, Dutch, Swedish, of Norwegian, Danish, and Russian. months. The bookwas After Family His some saw as belated recognition for the more celebrated earlier book. muckraking ­muckraking classics, the book both recorded history and made was the highly eighth controversial bestseller of 1915, going through 78,000 Haywood asked the purpose of his research. The “I’m Poole Harbor,” writing replied. a book called ­drama, Poole found a way to put this sentiment into fiction. One evening during the home in New theYork, Wobbly leader mentioned that he planned in the ­following spring “to strike New Harbor York and shut it up tight.” When Poole replied that he knew of this plan and had learned of it from a young IWW organizer he’d been interviewing on the waterfront, the surprised ­expressed their feeling of “oneness” with workers through visual art and EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 31 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 32

32 the Eugene O’Neill Review furnace doors.furnace and the only light in the “murky air” comes from the “flaming mouths” ofthe men’s the uponheads” down crushes ceiling “[t]he which in sides,”space a all on deep, three bunks, steel narrow, of “[t]iers own“firemen’s O’Neill’s its ­forecastle,” with with common in much having atmosphere “stifling” Yank “belongs” in the stokehole and calls it home until he is intruded upon intruded is he until home it calls Yankstokeholeand the “belongs”in us.behind And Iwas where Ibelonged.” door iron an slammed and deck “Weon outbelonging: cameof idea the to meaning more gives Billy decks, upper the to ladder after ladder climbing where his up Billy,“Let’sgo to ends remarking by Kramertour stokehole lines, same the Along Yank. by expressed as “home” as O’Neill’s recalls question the This home?” concept of our like you an agitator and has spent two years working as a stoker—asks Billy, “How do Equation Personal The the crucial stokehole crucial the of scene for model likely a as consideration light”—deserves electric and walls steel only night, no and day “no is there scene—where hellish this of rendering been familiar with the book, for that seems self-evident. It is useful also to also useful is It haveself-evident. seems that would for book, O’Neill the with that been familiar establish to order in just not worthwhile seems UptonSinclair, Eugeneand,believe, I O’Neill. at look detailed A bestial, half-naked workers shoveling coal into the ship’sfurnace. the into coal shoveling workers half-naked bestial, of glimpse shocking a gets and oceanliner stokeholean of the to visit a pays expedition slumming upper-classa adventureronan O’Neill—comes when vocabulary.­political-artistic the by endorsed enthusiastically text a as positioned well matter,and subject and recognize that three tiers high.”tiers three bunks skeleton steel bunks, of rows with “crowded is chamber” “low This mouths”“furnacehot.”“white are the andnaked” half areworkat “themen “a long narrow chamber with a row of glowing doors,”furnace a place where “foul” and “heavily encrusted with dirt.” The stokers’as forecastle described isplace described as a to ladders oily down climb Kramer and Billy hold, the To visit to O’Neill’s. similar strikingly is firemen’s quarters and stokehole the of description ship’s “firemen.” physical Poole’s a of to lives Billy the character glimpse main middle-class the escorts Kramer organizer labor ’el’ pa i o cus poonl pecuid ih h ie that idea the with preoccupied profoundly course of is O’Neill’s play O’Neill’slike stokehole,Kramer—who the entersTom he in PerkinsAs in found scene stokehole the of version the In A decisive moment in Poole’storelation in moment in importantdecisive most A novel—the Masses n is otiuos t fr a at f O’Neill’s developing of part a form to contributors, its and 19 The Harbor 18 Poole’s “almost naked” stokers are trapped in a claustral, a in trapped Poole’sare stokers naked”“almost has forsaken his middle-class upbringing to become to upbringing middle-class his forsaken has was particularly well suited in terms of its outlook The Hairy Ape 20 . 17 The HarborThe you belong.”After , the the , The ­stokehole 16 ­militant Poole’s ­Harbor 16/02/12 10:47 PM

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stokers ­stokers who is is who affluent ­affluent ­fashion, belonging ­belonging moment of of ­moment interestingly, ­interestingly, It gets its added mentioned “bull” ­mentioned , is of well-heeled 22 The Harbor The stoker, be an embryonic embryonic an be ­stoker, consider the issue of 21 another ­another TheHairyApe bewildered fury” at the the at fury” ­bewildered The Hairy Ape and The Harbor Both Poole and O’Neill contrast the squalor of the stokehole with stokehole the of squalor the contrast O’Neill and Poole Both In In keeping with emphasis Poole’s on Billy rather than on the Belongingis central to both texts, there but ways inwere which O’Neill New Yorkers, sapped of vitality: “Women and girls were hurrying by, and as girlsand hurrying were sapped vitality: of by, “Women Yorkers, New of thesephantoms at peerin to moment a for stoppedthem of some proto-expressionist proto-expressionist effects akinto As O’Neill’s. Billy approaches the docks early on the morning of his stokehole visit, he passeswhere “the department a store windows commercial looked unreal. area Their soft rich lights had been put out, and in this cold hard light of all wax their appeared blandishing like ladies so many buxom ghosts.” Another of ­reminiscent of theBilly’s depiction visions, of Mildred in New York and gaudily displayed consumer goods. O’Neill accomplishes this accomplishes goods. consumer O’Neill displayed gaudily and York New in brings Poole but Avenue, Fifth to stokehole the from action the moving by some deploying even while stokehole the after and before just images similar themselves, there is no character in the stokehole scene of of scene stokehole the in character no is there themselves, figure, who laughs and spits and antagonizes antagonizes and spits and laughs who figure, Ape? Hairy the Yank, the head of the line and set the pace for the others to follow” and, and, follow” to others the for pace the set and line the sees of head he the when who, eyes” shining limpid large, with creature a of bull huge “One (218, stare” a puzzled with suddenly “stopped hold, in the ship’s the intruders “ Yank’s to similar seems reaction This 219). briefly Could intrusion. Poole’s his of awareness Mildred’s consequences to the stokehole encounter, but alsoclass leisure slumming the of psyche from the focus from the shifting of ­maneuver O’Neill’s radical whileto that of the still worker, not ignoring either side of the class divide. at “stands who stoker” “lead a however, is, There Yank. as formidable so quite power in O’Neill’s hands not only from the attribution of life-destroying As Yank says, “She didn’t belong, dat’s what!” dat’s belong, didn’t “She says, Yank As of Yank’s of alienation Yank’s after Mildred insults him ­psychologically from confusion in is his sense of inability self his after beingstripped of of a idea the that recover to indicate to careful is O’Neill But belonging. of sense is Mildred “fix” and pursue to Yank enraged the of desire The ways. both cuts produced by the notion that his neither for “home” quarters her, constitute, nor even a place where she can be present without serious mutual harm. by by Mildred, when his search for scenes belonging begins of anew. both The stokehole class-based “belonging” as a psychological shibboleth. The starkest aspect clearly surpassed Poole in his treatment of it. Thedeath that ideathe Hairy that Ape “at last it belongs” might isbe read only as a in dramatically effective intensification of concepta Poolefirst explored. EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 33 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 34

34 the Eugene O’Neill Review ih mn n a oa i eeig lte hl ale i ec other’s each in asleep half clothes arms” (214). evening in woman a and man a with to waxen me. A longmotor luxurious equally passed looked own faces their of ship, the stokers the were singing” still (219–20). his middle-class existence: “I knew that deep below this, down in the bottom too simply great. Billy areis haunted by the memory disparities of the stokehole even material after he returns to disorienting—the and overwhelming prove world fashionable the and worldworkers’ the in conditions of views dream.” For Poole’s protagonist, as for both Yank and Mildred,a in though the as all itthrough walked I And . . . band. the of crashregular the to talking their oftumultjoyous the heard I clothes, immaculate fresh their I breathed the fragrant scent of them and of the flowersthat they wore, Isaw by,”furs, me their brushed women of Dainty softness the felt“Iremarks; he people. of throngs gay “among himself finds belongs, he where Billy, back harbor to “the harbor of long ago, and the snowy white sails of [his] father’s[his] of sails white snowy ago,the longandof“the harbor to harbor mechanized modern the compares often Billy iron. and stream of the age got hold of you hard” 232). (221, shake it off.” Noticing his distress, Kramer remarks,“That look at a stokehole hourJ.K.with stokersand the can’tgaveI feeljolt.canit still. a I me to seem andstokehole the in seen had he hell”“the describes Billy deep. . . something . wasI Itwouldn’t . . have . workroom.thought my it in could up hit myself shutme and so depressedhard.” and To his wife, sodden grey, kept bobbing up in my memory,” he says. “I went home some red, fiery some stokers, individual of faces “The traumatized: likewise is Billy lives.workers’ into intrusion her by disturbed deeply Yankare and O’Neill’s Mildred effects. psychological powerful has adventurer slumming class barriers. negate or transcend to is purpose ostensible whose experience an enable to thereby(andclassreinforcesorderof barriers)—in classthe privileges upon draws character Each pass. his procure to father-in-law engineer corporate name to get permission to visit the stokehole; Billy uses his influencewith his shares father’s room, her uses Mildred engine ship’sO’Neill’s Douglas. with Mildred traits class-based the into entrée him allow connections industrialists with whose Billy, protagonist Poole’s details; physical beyond go youth” (114). Just as frequently, Billy’s father in turn laments the Similarities between the key scenes in scenes key the between Similarities scene. stokehole his after contrast class-based the continues Poole Both Poole and O’Neill focus on the transition from the age of sail to sail of age the from transition the on focus O’Neill and Poole Both the by stokehole the to visit Poole’s the novel,in and O’Neill’splay In The Harbor The and concludes, “That “That ­concludes, The Hairy Ape Hairy The ­disappearance ­juxtaposed ­Eleanore, ­worried 16/02/12 10:47 PM

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The The , O’Neill 23 audiences ­audiences . understand ­understand introduction ­introduction of proposed hopefully ­proposed O’Neill’s early 1920s O’Neill’s The Harbor The 24 TheHairyApe such doctrines are are doctrines such , consciously working over parallel over , working material not consciously The Harbor The The Hairy Ape Hairy The , it is Paddy who expresses these nostalgic sentiments about work ­particularly astute, they might also have connected this aspect of But But IWW theory is central to at least one aspect The of play. O’Neill’s In In labor leader Poole paints Marsh, Jim an accurate fictional portraitof Thestokehole scenesof Poole and O’Neill lead to the somep’n and somep’n de woild moves!” he I’m what declares; makes “And iron into steel. . . de . muscles I’m in steel, de punch behind it!” ­ideology with a level of irony more in keeping with the demise 1920s. the early the IWW by of marginalization of the violent and labor radical ­basis ofpersonal pride, Yank’s along with his sense of place in the world, stems from his feeling that as a worker he is also a creative force: “I start by by Kramer as a possible solution to economic injustice. Kramer explains to Billy were entering that into “We an age action’—strikes of ‘direct force—of Poole’s in as text, Poole’s In (228). men” of masses prodigious like—by the and pre–world war social context, IWW theory is taken seriously and treated, if not with complete acceptance, at least as a legitimate response to brutal class-based exploitation. Not surprisingly, O’Neill’s play handles Wobbly conveys skepticism about the ability of the Wobbly policy to ease or or ease to policy Wobbly the of ability the about skepticism conveys in but pain, psychic Yank’s IWW doctrine by an IWW In organizer. scene 7 of with Poole with in Poole historically. it update to but expressionistically it transform to only past due.” And those of Yank, “Yuh don’t belong too no more, see. don’t . . And “Yuh . those Yuh’r of past Yank, due.” age the bygone for impossibly who longs father, Billy’s to well as old”—apply of towering sails and clippers Yankee while he watches his harbor become in “clouded the smoke and soot of an age of steam Considering and iron.” rejoinder to Paddy—“Nix on Yank’s dat old sailing ship stuff! All datbull’s dead, see?”—we might wonder whether O’Neill is in some ways dialoguing of of beautiful sailing ships in favor of steam-driven “hogs of the In sea.” Ape Hairy in the open air and the demise of sailing vessels. His words, “Me time is than ideological. At one particularly stirring mass meeting, Marsh-Haywood Marsh-Haywood meeting, mass stirring particularly one At ideological. than Yank’s character to the doctrine Wobbly Yank’s character that was paraphrased and adapted in Poole Ernest speeches by Paterson Haywood’s from his power. of the height at magnetism the man’s captures that one Haywood, When Billy meets Marsh, described as “the great mob agitator and notori- ous leader of he strikes,” feels an “electric shock” with effects less physical audiences audiences would have been more assertions of ­realize thatphysical agency likely Yank’s here derive from the IWW than contemporary readers to lexicon as articulated by IWW leader Haywood. And were if those EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 35 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 36

36 the Eugene O’Neill Review Poole’sPoole’s contrastO’Neill’sBoth andKramer).a novelemphasize play and (O’Neill’s Perkins stoker Tom downclassing educated an of figure the Like text. Poole’s in available readilyThe Harbor, elements if O’Neill some upon wonder might seize didn’t we fiction, and drama both including sources, from plays adapt to students encouraged Baker that ­Considering that composed this play for Baker’s seminar in the spring of 1915, the same spring ground a foray into radical ideals. O’Neill’s ideals. into radical a forayground Tom inwardlybyPerkinstorn is to contrast this use they people,” and cabin “first the and stokers between or Poole’s Jim Marsh and Joe Kramer. character,outof grammar, be correctednot would with Haywood foreither dey’resomep’n,ain’t tink don’tdey nothin’!dat guysDey belong”— rich de affirmations of worker supremacy—“Slaves, hell!audacious We runmost de whole woiks.All his even that creation, extreme an as categorized easily so Haywood which in playedera major thatrealizesroles. Yank also One notis of the IWW at Lawrence and Paterson and the numerous strikes of the ­realizes that part of Yank’s thinking atmeshes seamlessly with the fiery closely Looking Yank. O’Neill’s in ­expressionisticallyrendered tendencies political and traits personal perhaps of mix is the in he not absent But Marsh. Jim Poole’s through realistically captured pronouncements, was public charismatic and bold with along directness and for known was O’Neill’selucidate who play.helpsHaywood, of Yank’s character is a fascinating historical detail that both complicates and stokers”dead (215, 255,284). stokeholes the in naked” and momentasksa of“aas silence tribute the toall work who “men the to directly remarks his novel’saddresses meeting, the great strike in Marsh alongside speaking Kramer, why is This world.” the in work real the all do “they because underestimated be not should they it, sea.”views Kramer at fires As the all feed they And bums. of lot a like look force:“Yes—they political Billy’sa stokers’as the potentialabout skepticism the men who make the ships of use . . . and to you the ship industry should industry ship the you to and . . . use of ships the make who men the You’reaboard! go you powerful until can’t sail ship most the but . the . . her, with drive to ­engines equipped be may ship “a that workers reminds me?” “It’s me makes it move! Sure, on’y for me everything stops. It all goes dead, get In (283). belong!” also relatedtoone of O’Neill’s earliest plays, If The presence in The Harbor The 25 Joe Kramer, a follower of Marsh, espouses similar ideas in response to The Harbor The

The Personal Equation Personal The a gtig ae eiw ad eln b te thousands. the by selling and reviews rave getting was is directly related to related directly is The Hairy Ape Hairy The The Hairy Ape these principles inform Yank’sthat inform sense principles these of a form of IWW thinking as an incorporates, along with actual stokers, actual with along incorporates, 26 The Hairy Ape Hairy The The Personal Equation , then it is probably is it then , The Harbor The ­confrontation . 27 ­rhetoric ­element ­existing O’Neill ­prewar one , 16/02/12 10:47 PM

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The The ­survive shifting ­shifting therefore, ­therefore, European ­European conclusion ­conclusion are shaped The The 28 The Personal Equation were not only no longer only no not were longer was certainly one of the first first the of one certainly was , the new ending incorporated ThePersonal Equation The Harbor The and The Harbor The The Bridge —in which O’Neill’s IWU agitator Whitely TheHarbor And while And 31 ” Another clear influence on the play, however, was 30 did not last. With American entry into the European conflict 29 . Largely because Poole’s rise as a was writer so tiedclosely to the because Poole’s Largely The endingsof both Several O’Neill scholars have pointed out that The Personal Equation Poole Poole initially supported American war aims, but after theNovember 1918 Armistice he was severely disillusioned by reactionary trends in the United fortunes fortunes of history and politics, the national The Harbor celebrity he achieved with in the 1917, desire for patriotic unity gave license to a severe curtailment of civil liberties and touched offstrong antileft persecutions. Strikesand labor actions of the type in depicted Poole by front-page news; they soon became illegal under the Sedition Act of 1918. developed from the writer’s experience as a witness to the 1911 British General British 1911 the to witness a as experience writer’s the from ­developed Strike in Liverpool. issue issue of what will happen to the labor movement as a result, the very issue that Poole uses to lend contemporary resonance to the conclusion of Harbor of of states, “Thisis theupheaval of and everything,” argues that the“Socialists, to Syndicalists back and allup have “got the until of government this them” focuses the on but commencement the war’s registers only is won”—not war the historical context of its period of production, when an incipient world war raised serious questions and had damaging labor. Theseconcerns, effectsas Robert for Richter reminds us in international his new analysis of early “were current career, issues in O’Neill’s 1915 when O’Neill was writing Equation. Personal The American American novels to directly treat these issues, O’Neill also deals accurately the end At of both works, with them in play. his later only slightly with question—answered the and begins, war world fails, strike IWW-led an can ideal socialist worldwide the whether cases—is both in skepticism fervor. patriotic and repression government of atmosphere militarized a in explained explained in his autobiography, chaos.” in world whole the “showing by war the of onset the by the outbreak of the First When ­earliest literary Macmillan accepted of treatments the the Great War. World War. Poole’s novel after but finished, was book the believed Poole among 1914, early in the manuscript hostilities began in July of that year, he asked the publisher to manuscript return and the then spent six weeks rewriting the final chapters. As he conflicts involvingrevolutionary thephilosophy, loveof awoman, and the middle-class values represented by his father—a combination of Billy. tensions struggle the inner Poole’s of resembles strongly that EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 37 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 38

38 the Eugene O’Neill Review liberalism was outwas “normalcy.” ofpostwarstep liberalism with continuedThough he to the Wobblies, of ­sentencing to of long socialists prison terms—made it clear that lynching his brand of the Scare, Red first 1919—the of Events States. literary lexicon. literary American the in situationestablished an play’sas the audience of members Poole’s version of the scene—a version that could have been familiar to some from himself differentiating consciously been have naturalistic,”may be he directions indicated that “the treatment of this scene . . . should by no means expressionisticwith steroids.it inject When and fiction proseO’Neill’s stage popular from trope rendered naturalistically a take to was speculate, now in scene pivotal his creating in did O’Neill What stokehole scene. As far as I can determine, that distinction falls to Ernest ­inventorPoole. of the shockingly squalid, psychically charged, class- of tion by reading two books: inspired is work social to commitment French’s passionate that point one at mentions Passos Vorse).Heaton Dos Mary activist-writer Village of labor activist Mary French (whom critics have as seen a fictionalized Big Money novel1936 his in Passos Dos Johnby predicted been had legacy literary with appended study questions for teachers. Pocket illustrated an Classics edition of issued Macmillan 1925 in that was marginalization Poole’s to exception interesting One figure. cultural a as prominence from saw Poole’s 1930s and 1920s the fall gradual journalism, and fiction produce vastly differentwhere prevailingthinking aboutbutthe class warchronologically was concerned.removed years few a only context a for it updating by also but fiction in sketched situationfirst a fromdrawing by only notfavorite plays, and best his of one on worked O’Neill how into window useful a of Poole’sreading side-by-side A text. from laborer’sabsent the perspective interloper,fromdownclassing but the of upper-class intrusions on workers’ lives not simply from the perspective of allows O’Neill to accomplish something significant: exploration ofthe effects previous version of an already mythical cultural encounter. Focusing on Yank playwright’sa the from ofdepartures is—another it what for acknowledged Yank’sfrom encounter be the should on side focus and stokers the to voice within orientation an the point maintains Poole’sof view only of thathis middle-class characters. O’Neill’s favor O’Neill’s decision to in give noted be Whatever the extent of Poole’s influence on Eugene O’Neill, an apprecia and importance cultural his 1950,Poole’s Januarybefore in Long death The Harbor The . The most memorable character inDos Passos’s novel isthe young 32 And while the two scenes have scenes twomuch common, the in it might while And The Harbor at least makes clear that O’Neill was certainly not the the not certainly was O’Neill that clear makes least at Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, and Poole’s , slightly abridged for use as a high school text, The HarborThe and The Hairy Ape Hairy The The Hairy Ape Hairy The ­ confrontational The Harbor , we might we , ­version offers The 16/02/12 10:47 PM ­ .

chura poole’s The Harbor as a Source 39 16/02/12 10:47 PM

­artifact emerges ­emerges publicity ­publicity and reissued the novel—which The Harbor ig. 7 F 2011. Edition, Penguin New ThePenguin Grouppublishers, responding to my suggestions, recently from the factory, surging upward under a boldly emblazoned “I.W.W.” as from if the factory, surging upward under a boldly emblazoned “I.W.W.” the from verycall action. Though to different the to organization’s in answer I was lucky enough not only to write the introduction for the new edition but but edition new the for introduction the write to only not enough lucky I was that decided I Ultimately image. cover book’s the propose successfully to also nothing expressed the energy book’s and ethos better than a visual that slightly predated it—Robert ­illustration Edmond worker for young confident the Jones’s intent, compelling Paterson an sketch, pageant, which Jones’s doubled In program. as ­pageant the cover of the recognized the importance of series.Classics Penguin influential decades—inthe for print of been had out EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 39 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 40

40 the Eugene O’Neill Review ewe te oe ad h lbr tuge ta poue i wie paying while it produced that struggles labor the and novel the ­between analogies strengthens image dynamic this foreground, the in seagulls and 1915 original cover that featured sketcheda harbor panorama steamera with No homage to Paterson the pageant as ashaping cultural force. or that O’Neill would writer the to be provide them. create—helped strike the thatProvincetown drama the and Paterson strike the of novel best the between emerged haveconnectionsinteresting that us did one thing, the playwright quite another, but it probably shouldn’t surprise with discernment, sharper form, new and increased psychic depth.poet The it investing archetype, pre-existing a surpassed and intensified conversely, situation produced in “Submarine” was thin and reductive. Thelatter project, in playwright maturing rapidly a as it of his 1916 handling sycophanticand in seemingly poet influence a as fledgling “ Poole’s by influenced was “Submarine” O’Neill’s poem that way same the in ter testing processes. same those of expression cogent most O’Neill’s the is slummers. confrontationMildred-Yank privileged-class and laborers destitute between exist Yank. with contact “oneness”thatassumption in could the troubled Poole’s then Douglas and tested novel Mildred put and stokehole the into Billy Poole’s led that impulses the from absent not Provincetown—andcertainly “oneness”of type Patersonpresentata forwasworkers anddesire that with us of the milieu the welltoas back takes It O’Neill. Eugene of drama the to association, by therefore, and Harbor ­Submarines.” qualitative between difference a O’Neill’s is There of handling 4. 2. 3. 1.

t 253–56. only that “for some reason O’Neill did not sign it” (321). O’Neill had published a type TheGelbs do not speculate onthe reasonthe poem appeared anonymously, his 1940 autobiography,1940 his “Submarines,” Poole, Ernest works/17200.htm July (accessed 25,2011). Harley also Hammerman, See “Submarine,” eOneill.com, http://www.eoneill.com/ Gelb, Barbara and Gelb Arthur Eugene O’Neill, “Submarine,” If Jones’s illustration aptly leads us back to the historical sources of sources historical the to Jones’sIfback us leads aptlyillustration t em vr lkl ta te nepeain f h coscas encoun- cross-class the of interpretation the that likely very seems It e The Hairy Ape Hairy The s , it also alludes to the ideological origins of the Provincetownoriginsof the ideological the to alludesPlayers italso , took cues from Poole’s earlier version—though not in Poole’snot fromversion—though earliercues took The Bridge The Masses Masses Masses O’Neill : Arl 95 89 Poe eod hs tr in story this retold Poole 8–9. 1915, April , My Own Story Own My , February 1917, 43. , which journalistically expressed the journalistically which , (New York: Harper and Bros, 1962), 321. 1962), Bros, and York:Harper (New The Hairy Ape Hairy The (New York: Macmillan, 1915),York: Macmillan,(New . What the former the What . ­stating The 16/02/12 10:47 PM

chura poole’s The Harbor as a Source 41 16/02/12 10:47 PM

The The Ernest Ernest success ­success in 1912, His Family His , see Patrick Chura, (Urbana: University University (Urbana: just after the after just (Philadelphia: Temple (Philadelphia: Temple (New York: Twayne, 1966), Twayne, York: (New New New London Telegraph His Family His TheHarbor but are also indebted to Dowling’s alsoare but to indebted Dowling’s Ernest Poole Ernest (Orleans, MA: Parnassus, 1994), 106. 1994), MA: Parnassus, (Orleans, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University , Poole moved his family into an uptown (New York: Stokes, 1941), 250. Stokes, York: (New The Harbor The Critical Companion to Eugene O’Neill: A Literary Literary A O’Neill: Eugene to Companion Critical (New York: Harper Bros., 1952), 51. 1952), Bros., Harper York: (New (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), John John 1974), Press, University Columbia York: (New , 2 vols. (New York: Facts on File, 2009), 1:706. File, on Facts York: (New , 2 vols. TheHarbor (1915; New York: Penguin, 2011). All (1915; New page York: references are The Radical Novel in the United States, 1900–1954: Some , June 8, 1913). , June (57). Provincetown as a Stage Provincetown (New York: Routledge, 2005), 69–77; Chura, introduction to to introduction 69–77; Chura, 2005), Routledge, York: (New , 259. , 199. The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Silk Strike, 1913Strike,Silk Paterson Bridge: Fragile The The Road to the Temple the to Road The The Long Loneliness Long The TheHarbor was “in part recognition of the importance of its predecessor” ( predecessor” its of importance the of recognition part “in was The Pulitzer Prizes Pulitzer The by Ernest Poole (New York: Penguin, 2011), ix–xxviii; and Robert Dowling, RobertDowling, and ix–xxviii; 2011), Penguin, York: (New Poole Ernest by , May 1915, 13. 1915, , May The Bridge The The Bridge The The Harbor” The , 55). In In 55). , The Harbor The New York Tribune New York work, work, 54; Steve 54; Golin,Steve 235. 1988), Press, University for Pulitzer the that possibility the considers Keefer of Poole analyzed Hohenberg the prize and deliberations committee noted that earlier and successful more “had not made like of anything Poole’s the impression Leona Rust Egan, Egan, Rust Leona Glaspell, Susan Poole, Walter Bates Rideout, Interrelations of Literature and Society Keefer, Frederick 56; Truman Press, 1956), apartment, while O’Neill chose downtown existence in the Village. Poole spent his his spent Poole theVillage. in existence downtown chose while O’Neill apartment, summers during this period at his family retreat in the White of Mountains New Provincetown. or London in New summers spent O’Neill Hampshire; Poole, Day, Dorothy Reed, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and ( Thompson Buchanan were the other three So far I have found no evidence that the two men ever met. was in struggling while1911–12, as a and it to make writer Poole Manhattan TheyLower were both in was O’Neill But living at at thethe Jimmy time Priest’s. Poole was in involved the strike in Paterson was 1913, in O’Neill While Poole the Farm Sanatorium. Gaylord was in Europe in late 1914 and early 1915, O’Neill was at Harvard. In the months following the publication of Harbor Harlem Mythic to Waterfront the From York: New in Slumming of Illinois Press, article this of 2007). Parts O’Neill’s. as cloth same the from cut Dowling ways some in is ­conditions notes that Poole’s take on on work build own previous on my 1910s maritime the novel. of analysis subsequent Masses in his plays.” See Robert Dowling, SeeRobertDowling, plays.” his in Work and Life His to Reference Ernest Poole, to the Penguin edition. For further treatments of Melville Herman from Literature American in Journeys Downclassing Contact: Vital Wright Richard to of of imitative poetry before. During his tenure with he lighthearted wrote parodies of classic poets to that, Robertaccording Dowling, do not deserve to but be nevertheless considered versification” “mature servedas of furtherideasthedevelop would that for dissemination forms and “groundwork

7. 5. 8. 9. 6. 11. 15. 13. 12. 14. 10. EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 41 EOR 33.1_03_Chura.indd 42

42 the Eugene O’Neill Review 20. 26. 24. 30. 29. 28. 22. 16. 25. 23. 32. 19. 18. 21. 27. 31. 17.

O’Neill, J.Eileen Herrmann M.Dowling and (Jefferson, Robert NC: McFarland, 2011), 43. and His Contemporaries: Bohemians, Radicals, Progressives and the Avant Radicalism,”O’Neill’s in of Garde Roots Maritime “The Richter, Robert forSee, example, Dowling, O’Neill, Poole, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), 3–75. EugeneO’Neill, Ibid., 129. Ibid., 128. Ibid., 128–29. Ibid., 123. 127–28, Ibid., 163. O’Neill, Poole, of 134. Library 1988), America, 121, Eugene O’Neill, Ibid., respectively. 216 215–16, 218, Poole, reworked form inhis 1940 autobiography, Poole considered this scene important enough to essentially republish it in slightly The Bridge The Harbor The Harbor Hairy Ape Personal Equation Hairy Ape The Hairy Ape The Personal Equation , 216. , 216, 219. All subsequent All 219. , 216, citations appear text. inthe , 217. , 121. , 143. , 75. Critical Companion, , in O’Neill: TheComplete Plays, 1920–1931 , in , The Unknown O’Neill The Bridge 2:389. , 207–10. , ed. Travised. , Bogard Eugene O’Neill Eugene (New York: , ed. 16/02/12 10:47 PM