He is widely regarded as the greatest US dramatist. His plays, although tragic, are characterized by a down-to-earth quality and are often experimental in form, influenced by German Expressionism, Strindberg, and Freud. They were a radical departure from the romantic and melodramatic American theatre entertainments. They include the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Beyond the Horizon 1920 and Anna Christie 1921, as well as The Emperor Jones 1920, The Hairy Ape 1922, Desire Under the Elms 1924, The Iceman Cometh 1946, and the posthumously produced autobiographical drama A Long Day's Journey into Night 1956 (written 1941), also a Pulitzer Prize winner. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 1936. O'Neill was born in New York City, the son of stage actors James O'Neill and Ella Quinlan. His tumultuous family relationships would later provide much material for his plays. He had varied experience as gold prospector, sailor, and actor. Other plays include The Great God Brown 1925, Strange Interlude 1928 (which lasts five hours), Mourning Becomes Electra 1931 (a trilogy on the theme of Orestes from Greek mythology), and A Moon for the Misbegotten 1947 (written 1943).
