Three doors of quiet | Tao House, Eugene O’Neill’s final writing place

Win Goodbody

5 years ago

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It was Tao House in Danville, California where Eugene O’Neill wrote all the big final plays. O’Neill lived there from 1937-44, one of the longest stopovers in one place for this endlessly homeless American.

There were three doors O’Neill would close when writing in his study. Needless to say, Gene wasn’t real big on noise. Given the secluded nature of the estate, he didn’t have to spend a lot of time chasing kids off the lawn.

Shut in at his desk, gazing out at the brown hills while the world was enveloped in the fireball of World War II, it was just Gene working away in silence with his original rep company of family ghosts.

Tao House in Danville, California.

Up the stairs to Gene’s office.

Around the corner.

The first door.

An outer room, and then the second door.

The third and final door.

And then all of a sudden, there it is.

At this desk: The Iceman Cometh (1939), A Touch of the Poet (1939), More Stately Mansions (1939), Hughie (1941), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1941), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1943).

Got a play to write? Sit down and try it out. No pressure.