The Nobel Prize in Literature 1936
Eugene O'Neill
As the Laureate was unable to be present at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1936, the speech was read by James E. Brown, Jr., American Chargé d'Affaires
It is an extraordinary privilege that has
come to me to take before this gathering of eminent persons the
place of my fellow-countryman, Mr. Eugene O'Neill, recipient of
the Nobel Prize in Literature, who unfortunately is unable to be
present here today.
It is an extraordinary privilege because the significance and
true worth of the Nobel Prizes are fully recognized in all
advanced parts of the world. The Prizes are justly held in honor
and esteem, for it is well known that they are awarded without
prejudice of any kind by the several committees whose members
generously devote much time and thought to the task in their
charge.
In addition to being a stimulus to endeavour and a high
recognition of achievement, the Prizes are valuable in another
respect. Owing to the complete absence of partiality in the
awarding of them, they induce people of all countries to think in
terms of the world and mankind, heedless of classifications or
boundaries of any character. The good influence of such
conspicuous recognition of a particular achievement thus spreads
far beyond its special purpose.
Mr. O'Neill has been prevented from being here today principally
because the state of his health, damaged by overwork, has forced
him to follow his doctor's orders to live absolutely quietly for
several months. It is his hope, and I follow his own words in a
letter to me, that all those connected with the festival will
accept in good faith his statement of the impossibility of his
attending, and not put it down to arbitrary temperament, or
anything of the sort.
In view of his inability to attend, he promptly sent a speech to
be read on his behalf on this occasion. Mr. O'Neill in a letter
to me said regarding his speech, «It is no mere artful
gesture to please a Swedish audience. It is a plain statement of
fact and my exact feeling, and I am glad of this opportunity to
get it said and on record.» It affords me great pleasure to
read now the speech addressed to this gathering by Mr. Eugene
O'Neill.
«First, I wish to express again to you my deep regret that
circumstances have made it impossible for me to visit Sweden in
time for the festival, and to be present at this banquet to tell
you in person of my grateful appreciation.
It is difficult to put into anything like adequate words the
profound gratitude I feel for the greatest honor that my work
could ever hope to attain, the award of the Nobel Prize. This
highest of distinctions is all the more grateful to me because I
feel so deeply that it is not only my work which is being
honored, but the work of all my colleagues in America - that this
Nobel Prize is a symbol of the recognition by Europe of the
coming-of-age of the American theatre. For my plays are merely,
through luck of time and circumstance, the most widely-known
examples of the work done by American playwrights in the years
since the World War - work that has finally made modern American
drama in its finest aspects an achievement of which Americans can
be justly proud, worthy at last to claim kinship with the modern
drama of Europe, from which our original inspiration so surely
derives.
This thought of original inspiration brings me to what is, for
me, the greatest happiness this occasion affords, and that is the
opportunity it gives me to acknowledge, with gratitude and pride,
to you and to the people of Sweden, the debt my work owes to that
greatest genius of all modern dramatists, your August
Strindberg.
It was reading his plays when I first started to write back in
the winter of 1913-14 that, above all else, first gave me the
vision of what modern drama could be, and first inspired me with
the urge to write for the theatre myself. If there is anything of
lasting worth in my work, it is due to that original impulse from
him, which has continued as my inspiration down all the years
since then - to the ambition I received then to follow in the
footsteps of his genius as worthily as my talent might permit,
and with the same integrity of purpose.
Of course, it will be no news to you in Sweden that my work owes
much to the influence of Strindberg. That influence runs clearly
through more than a few of my plays and is plain for everyone to
see. Neither will it be news for anyone who has ever known me,
for I have always stressed it myself. I have never been one of
those who are so timidly uncertain of their own contribution that
they feel they cannot afford to admit ever having been
influenced, lest they be discovered as lacking all
originality.
No, I am only too proud of my debt to Strindberg, only too happy
to have this opportunity of proclaiming it to his people. For me,
he remains, as Nietzsche remains in his sphere, the Master, still
to this day more modern than any of us, still our leader. And it
is my pride to imagine that perhaps his spirit, musing over this
year's Nobel award for literature, may smile with a little
satisfaction, and find the follower not too unworthy of his
Master.»
Prior to the speech, Robert Fries, Director of the Bergius Foundation, remarked: «It is difficult to explain the vital processes in the living organism; it is difficult to interpret the inmost essence of matter, but it is perhaps most difficult to sound the human mind and to understand the soul in its shifting phases. With passionate intensity and impulsive genius Eugene O'Neill has done this in his dramas, and one cannot but be captivated by the masterly way in which he deals with the great problems of life.»
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1936
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