Celebrated for their books on Eugene O'Neill and enjoying access to a trove of previously sealed archival material, the Gelbs deliver their final volume on the stormy life and brilliant oeuvre of this Nobel Prize-winning American playwright.
Arthur Gelb (Author), former managing editor of The New York Times,
has edited numerous works, including Great Lives of the Twentieth
Century. He is president of The New York Times Company Foundation.
The Gelbs live in New York City.
Barbara Gelb (Author) is the author of So Short a Time, a biography
of John Reed and Louise Bryant, and she is the coauthor of O'Neill.
Barbara and Arthur Gelb live in New York City.
Praise for By Women Possessed
“A juicy and entertaining volume that brims with such offstage
theatrics.”— The New York Times
“Now, in By Women Possessed, we have by far their most
comprehensive portrait of a man who was the ultimate example of a
god with feet of clay… the result of the accumulated work and
reflections of over 60 years, the Gelbs have produced a monumental
tome…It stands as both a monument to O’Neill and as a testament to
their labors…the industrious Gelbs demonstrate as profound a love
for their subject as could be wished, and they regard detail
unearthed as potential gold dust.” — Wall Street Journal
“It is as difficult to put down this exhaustively reported
reexamination of America’s first major playwright as it is to
ignore fresh productions of his great plays.” — Washington Post
“This extraordinary book is the final chapter in a fifty-year
effort to help us to know and understand our greatest dramatist.
Barbara Gelb and her late husband, Arthur, have given us the most
important resource in illuminating the life and work of Eugene
O'Neill.”—Brian Dennehy
“This is a compelling examination of one of the 20th century’s most
passionate and troubled minds, and a prime example of expert,
diligent, and wryly editorial biographical research.”—Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
“A compellingly full-size portrait of a literary
titan.”—Booklist
“The Gelbs are renowned for their Eugene O'Neill biographies, and
the new one…is packed with riveting details and rich portraits of
O'Neill and the people in his life, particularly third wife
Carlotta. It's also just a great read. The relationship of Eugene
and Carlotta is shown as loving at times, shot through with angst
and anger at others; oh, the drama!...By Women Possessed is a fine
last legacy, a tribute to his and his wife's work and their
fascination with and exploration of O'Neill.”— New London
Day
“A fitting capstone to a lifetime’s study of the strange and
tormented man who revolutionized the American Theater.” — Irish
Echo
"Their illuminating third volume, bolstered by his third wife
Carlotta Monterey's previously unreleased diaries, reevaluates the
influence of his mother and his three wives. When his
morphine-addicted mother Ella told him she wished he'd never been
born, she betrayed O'Neill in a way he would never forgive. His
love-hate for her shaped his work and his marriages to Kathleen
Jenkins, fiction writer Agnes Boulton and Carlotta. The Gelbs
describe how, after his death at 65 in 1953, Carlotta mounted
productions of The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night,
solidifying his legendary status" — BBC
“Arthur and Barbara Gelb cornered the market on Eugene O’Neill with
their celebrated biographies O’Neill and O’Neill: Life with Monte
Cristo. You wouldn’t think there’d be much more to say, but
several years ago, they discovered unpublished diaries by O’Neill’s
third wife, Carlotta Monterey. The result is the
fascinating By Women Possessed…Not for the faint of heart…But
neither, for the most part, are O’Neill’s plays.” — New
York Post
"Besides drawing a precise and stirring portrait of the
genre-defining writer’s tortured and inspired career, the Gelbs –
Arthur passed away in 2014 while completing this project to which
the couple dedicated both of their nearly 70-year careers – also
present a fascinating account of the world of American theater in
the first half of the 20th century.”— Harper's Bazaar
Praise for O'Neill
“One is dragged into the very presence of a genius and made to feel
his awful size. O'Neill was the great wrestler, fighting God to a
standstill. The authors have brought out his failings as a writer
and as a person only to leave him larger than before. I for one
will never forget the image of him the authors have made. O'Neill
needed this book, we all did. The theater will always need it, for
most of the time it is in the hands of triflers who will forever
need the towering rebuke of his life and his work and his
agony.”—Arthur Miller
“This is a wonderful book. It has the flow of fine fiction and the
impact of reality. Its protagonist was a giant. He founded the
American theater and his own story is as dramatic and as tragic as
any of his plays. But this book is more than his life story. It
reveals the making of an artist, the sources of his materials and
insight into the mystery of his genius. The authors live in the
theater; they know it and they care. They have sought out scores of
people who knew O'Neill, and out of a monumental job of research,
they have re-created the color of six decades. This book is a work
of devotion—and one of the very best books I have read about the
American theater.”—Eliz Kazan
Praise for O'Neill: Life With Monte Cristo
“[This book] is more than a biography; it's a truly magnificent,
insightful and meticulously documented original work worthy of
O'Neill's genius. Having thought I knew almost everything about
O'Neill, I am truly wide-eyed at the discoveries that Arthur and
Barbara Gelb have made.”—Jason Robards
“This is a great symphony of a book where Arthur and Barbara Gelb
guide us to the lower depths of Eugene O'Neill's family. Here are
many of the ingredients of a modern tragedy—alcoholism, drug
addiction, ethnic angst, spiritual despair and even success of a
certain kind, all narrated and scrutinized with insight, eloquence
and , above all, compassion. It doesn't matter that you know the
fate of the O'Neill family: you still can't put the book down.
There is only one place this book can be shelved—right next to the
immortal plays of Eugene O'Neill. Like Richard Ellmann and James
Joyce, the Gelbs and O'Neill are linked forever.”—Frank McCourt
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