The Unknown Oneill: Unpublished or Unfamiliar Writings of Eugene Oneill

This omnium-gatherum of Eugene O'Neill's ""unpublished or unfamiliar writings'' includes three full-length plays (The Personal Equation, the original, eight-act version of Marco's Millions and The Guilty One); part of the play that became Anna Christie; a dramatic adaptation of ``The Ancient Mariner''; a love poem; two short stories; and critical and occasional pieces including the work diary for Mourning Becomes Electra. As O'Neill scholar Bogard notes, the volume contains no ``undiscovered masterwork''; yet these largely early writings show one of America's most famous dramatists at his typewriter, grappling with themes and obsessions, experimenting with styles, forging the artistry that would make him famousand considerable interest attaches to them for that reason. The critical pieces are few and brief, the two most striking ones being, in effect, salutes to Strindberg. This year is the centennial of O'Neill's birth. (May)