![O'NEILL, Eugene (1888-1953). Typescript with very extensive autograph additions, deletions and revisions in ink, of his play Marco Millions, n.p., n.d. [before 1928].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01534_0073_000(102117).jpg?w=1)
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O'NEILL, Eugene (1888-1953). Typescript with very extensive autograph additions, deletions and revisions in ink, of his play Marco Millions, n.p., n.d. [before 1928].
Details
O'NEILL, Eugene (1888-1953). Typescript with very extensive autograph additions, deletions and revisions in ink, of his play Marco Millions, n.p., n.d. [before 1928].
4to, 182 pages (277 x 213mm.), mostly ribbon typescript, double-spaced on standard typewriter bond paper, speakers indicated by red underlines, bound with two brass rivets (minor wear to title, last leaf neatly detached).
THE PREVIOULY UNKNOWN WORKING TYPESCRIPT FOR ONE OF O'NEILL'S MOST ORIGINAL AND EXPERIMENTAL DRAMATIC WORKS, Marco Millions comprising a prologue, eight Acts and an epilogue, premiered in New York on 9 January 1928, and while its impressionistic and coruscating dialogue brought it only modest success with theater-goers, the play--written at the height of O'Neill's dramatic powers--subsequently saw several successful revivals and has won renewed critical attention. Set in an exotic locale, its characters include the celebrated traveler Marco Polo, his family, a Tartar general, a dervish, "the Ali brothers, Mohametan merchants," a prostitute and several priests (one Buddhist, one Taoist, one Confucian, one Moslem), a chorus, a chronicler and Kublai Khan. In the list of characters, O'Neill has lined through "a professor of Science," "a professor of classics" and others.
This previously-unknown working typescript is very extensively revised by O'Neill in ink in his small, neat hand. All but a few pages show at least a few authorial corrections, while many pages show extensive deletions, long additions, re-written dialogue and new stage directions. The lined-out text, in all cases, is quite readable, so that the playwright's earlier readings may be studied. In his forward O'Neill writes, "this play is an attempt to render poetic justice to one long famous as a traveler, unjustly world-renowned as a liar," since, in his account "he stuck to a recital of his facts and the world called him a liar for his pains" On some pages, whole sections of dialogue, up to 20 lines on some pages, have been marked for deletion by O'Neill. A slip with 26 typewritten lines of new dialogue has been pasted in at p.4-5. Some careful rearrangement of his material is evident: a previous "Act One" has been altered in ink to "Act Two" and O'Neill has added a descriptive note regarding the staging at the head. At the end of the prologue he has written another direction: "As the curtain falls, the same sweet sad music comes from the tree again as if its spirit were playing on the leaves a last lamenting farewell to the dead Princess. It rises softly and as softly dies away until it is nothing but a faint sound of wind rustling the leaves."
As Benjamin de Casseres has written "From Bound East for Cardiff to that superb fantasy of ironic humor and ironic wisdom, Marco Millions, one may trace the evolution of the soul of O'Neill, if one has the clairvoyant and imaginative eye. Marco Millions is the roots of O'Neill become a gorgeous flower. The black in O'Neill's soul has become gold. Social venom is transmuted into ironic laughter of the mournful gods. Impotent melancholy bursts into the flame of philosophic wisdom, "Caliban" has become "Hamlet"; "Yank, the Hairy Ape," has become "Kublai Khan," epicurean pessimist." The present typescript is apparently THE ONLY EXTANT WORKING DRAFT OF THIS PLAY. O'Neill's extensive papers are at Yale University Library, but include no typescript of Marco Millions. Very few O'Neill typescripts or manuscripts remain in private hands, the last example at auction was a carbon typescript of Strange Interlude with a few authorial amendments in Act One (sold at Christie's, Nov 26, 1979, lot 506, $24,000)
$24,000)
4to, 182 pages (277 x 213mm.), mostly ribbon typescript, double-spaced on standard typewriter bond paper, speakers indicated by red underlines, bound with two brass rivets (minor wear to title, last leaf neatly detached).
THE PREVIOULY UNKNOWN WORKING TYPESCRIPT FOR ONE OF O'NEILL'S MOST ORIGINAL AND EXPERIMENTAL DRAMATIC WORKS, Marco Millions comprising a prologue, eight Acts and an epilogue, premiered in New York on 9 January 1928, and while its impressionistic and coruscating dialogue brought it only modest success with theater-goers, the play--written at the height of O'Neill's dramatic powers--subsequently saw several successful revivals and has won renewed critical attention. Set in an exotic locale, its characters include the celebrated traveler Marco Polo, his family, a Tartar general, a dervish, "the Ali brothers, Mohametan merchants," a prostitute and several priests (one Buddhist, one Taoist, one Confucian, one Moslem), a chorus, a chronicler and Kublai Khan. In the list of characters, O'Neill has lined through "a professor of Science," "a professor of classics" and others.
This previously-unknown working typescript is very extensively revised by O'Neill in ink in his small, neat hand. All but a few pages show at least a few authorial corrections, while many pages show extensive deletions, long additions, re-written dialogue and new stage directions. The lined-out text, in all cases, is quite readable, so that the playwright's earlier readings may be studied. In his forward O'Neill writes, "this play is an attempt to render poetic justice to one long famous as a traveler, unjustly world-renowned as a liar," since, in his account "he stuck to a recital of his facts and the world called him a liar for his pains" On some pages, whole sections of dialogue, up to 20 lines on some pages, have been marked for deletion by O'Neill. A slip with 26 typewritten lines of new dialogue has been pasted in at p.4-5. Some careful rearrangement of his material is evident: a previous "Act One" has been altered in ink to "Act Two" and O'Neill has added a descriptive note regarding the staging at the head. At the end of the prologue he has written another direction: "As the curtain falls, the same sweet sad music comes from the tree again as if its spirit were playing on the leaves a last lamenting farewell to the dead Princess. It rises softly and as softly dies away until it is nothing but a faint sound of wind rustling the leaves."
As Benjamin de Casseres has written "From Bound East for Cardiff to that superb fantasy of ironic humor and ironic wisdom, Marco Millions, one may trace the evolution of the soul of O'Neill, if one has the clairvoyant and imaginative eye. Marco Millions is the roots of O'Neill become a gorgeous flower. The black in O'Neill's soul has become gold. Social venom is transmuted into ironic laughter of the mournful gods. Impotent melancholy bursts into the flame of philosophic wisdom, "Caliban" has become "Hamlet"; "Yank, the Hairy Ape," has become "Kublai Khan," epicurean pessimist." The present typescript is apparently THE ONLY EXTANT WORKING DRAFT OF THIS PLAY. O'Neill's extensive papers are at Yale University Library, but include no typescript of Marco Millions. Very few O'Neill typescripts or manuscripts remain in private hands, the last example at auction was a carbon typescript of Strange Interlude with a few authorial amendments in Act One (sold at Christie's, Nov 26, 1979, lot 506, $24,000)
$24,000)