O'NEILL EUGENE: (1888-1953) O'Neill writes to the young French translator of 'The Hairy Ape' regarding work that ...

O'NEILL EUGENE: (1888-1953) O'Neill writes to the young French translator of 'The Hairy Ape' regarding work that would eventually send the latter 'mad'

O'NEILL EUGENE: (1888-1953) American playwright, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1936. An interesting A.L.S., Eugene O'Neill, to two sides of a correspondence card, Le Plessis, Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, 19th September n.y. (1929), to [Maurice] Bourgeois. O'Neill informs his correspondent that he has signed the papaers that they had sent, explaining 'I have put down as my address care of the American Play Co. It is possible I may have to return to America before long and that address will always reach me. Moreover, since the agreement between us for "The Hairy Ape" translation was made through that agency my contract with them requires that all royalty payments should be made to them for me and cannot be made directly to me'. O'Neill continues to confirm that he will be happy to pay his share of the business expenses that have been incurred, and further writes 'As for the matter of an advance royalty, as you say I should have spoken sooner. But it was to your advantage and protection as well as mine to ask for one. But of course, if it is not customary, that explains matters. I think it should be made customary though, since it is such a general rule in other countries and is such a good protection for dramatists and translators'. The playwright also expresses his regret at not being able to get to Paris as he has to complete some work which must be sent to New York, and concludes his letter by remarking 'I certainly hope with you that "The Ape" may succeed and make some money. All I meant was that it is the sort of play, as results elsewhere have proved, that it is a big gamble as far as reaching any wide public is concerned. It is either liked very much - or not liked at all'. A letter of good content to O'Neill's young French translator. One heavy vertical fold to the centre, otherwise about VG

The Hairy Ape, O'Neill's expressionist play of 1922, was translated by Maurice Bourgeois and the first French production was staged at the Theatre des Arts in Paris in 1929. However, the work involved for Bourgeois took its toll on his mental health and newspaper reports of the time (under headlines including 'Dramatist Goes Mad') stated 'Bourgeois......went mad following the dress rehearsal.....his friends believe that the highly emotional title role of the play he translated played a part. At all events, Bourgeois went into a dressing room of the theatre after the play and put on the rough clothes and cap of the hairy ape......A director of the theatre found him wandering about the corridors in those clothes, and on speaking to him Bourgeois became violent and smashed up furniture. He then climbed on to the roof and walked about there.......finally, at 1.30 in the morning, they called in the police'.