Visit and tour of the Eugene O'Neill estate in Danville, California

First and only American playwright  to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1936

Institute and Library, Theater   Here  the annual Playwrights Residency, and O'Neill Festival take place.  This year, was the first production of "The Iceman Cometh" written here at Tao House. .  

Gate to Tao House with Tao (The Way) wishes  on gateway .  The O'Neills visited China and his wife Carlotta was inspired to translate the Chinese style into their new home, which they had built for them, with Nobel Prize money.  

Living room originally furnished by Gumps (reproduction).  Katherine Hepburn wrote the decisive letter, which  
caused Gumps to cooperate and retrieve a Chinese style flat bed originally purchased and owned by Eugene O 'Neill which one sees in his bedroom adjacent to Carlotta's.  

Chinese Screens commissioned for living room 

Eugene O Neill's study with original desk   Here he wrote his last and greatest works:  "A Long Day's Journey into Night', "A Moon for the Misbegotten", and "The Iceman Cometh", along with "Hughie" and "More Stateley Mansions. "   



President Ford signed Public Law 94-535 designating the Eugene ONeill Histoiral Site, operated by the National Park Service.  O'Neill's neighbor sold off the adjacent property, through which they travelled to their house on top of the hill, and today, that area is a development community of villas.  Only two visits a day, 3 days a week are allowed here just outside Danville, California, close to Walnut Creek. 
  

Eugene O Neill's study with original desk   Here he wrote his last and greatest works:  "A Long Day's Journey into Night', "A Moon for the Misbegotten", and "The Iceman Cometh", along with "Hughie" and "More Stateley Mansions. "    President Ford signed Public Law 94-535 designating the Eugene ONeill Histoiral Site, operated by the National Park Service.  O'Neill's neighbor sold off the adjacent property, through which they travelled to their house on top of the hill, and today, that area is a development community of villas.  Only two visits a day, 3 days a week are allowed here just outside Danville, California, close to Walnut Creek.  O Neill stated, “I have never had a home, never had a chance to establish roots. I grew up in hotels...It’s strange, but the time I spent at sea on a sailing ship was the only time I ever felt I had roots in any place.”    Tao House was a refuge for O’Neill.   In early 1937 he and Carlotta were living in a SF hotel:  “No roots.  No home”, Carlotta wrote as they searched for a place to live.  Drawn to the pirvacy and climate of the San Ramon Valley, they purchased a 158 acre ranch near Danville.    O’Neill’s interest in Eastern thought and Carlotta’s passion for Oriental art and décor inspired the name”Tao House”  Tao, “the Way”..the sea symbolized for 'ONeill the “impelling, inscrutable forces behind life which it is my ambition to at least faintly shadow...in my plays.”  Of Tao House, he asserted,  “This is a final home and harbor for me.”    Life at Tao House Carlotta channeled her energy into a house which had a Spanish exterior but a Chinese house interior...they rarely spent a night away from their house.  She typed up all of his manuscripts and guarded his privacy.  Carlotta  called O’Neill the “master”  and they as a couple were reclusive.  O’Neill enjoyed gardening and attending football games in anonymity.  He worked on several plays at a time on two desks in a study which required three doors to enter~  Carlotta insured that his isolation was undisturbed.  He rose early and worked uninterrupted from early morning to 1:00 pm.  After lunch he napped and then swam in the pool or walked with Carlotta...though sometimes he worked without break into the night.  He also devoted time to his dog Glemie, a surrogate child, with a diamond collar, and bed and gourmet meals...in the evenings the couple usually read or listened to jazz or blues.  He met her first when she was acting in one of his minor plays in NYC and he thought she was awful.  A decade later, they met again in NYC and ended up in marriage...! He was disreputable in appearance and she decided he needed someone to take care of him, and she decided she was the one. She had had three marriages, or perhaps even four.  I find Liu Haiping’s edited edition in the bookstore!  Of course, I had totally forgotten the connection, the most important English Scholar, had become free to travel, due to his expertise on Eugene O Neill....

Eugene O Neill's study with original desk   Here he wrote his last and greatest works:  "A Long Day's Journey into Night', "A Moon for the Misbegotten", and "The Iceman Cometh", along with "Hughie" and "More Stateley Mansions. "   

President Ford signed Public Law 94-535 designating the Eugene ONeill Histoiral Site, operated by the National Park Service.  O'Neill's neighbor sold off the adjacent property, through which they travelled to their house on top of the hill, and today, that area is a development community of villas.  Only two visits a day, 3 days a week are allowed here just outside Danville, California, close to Walnut Creek. 

O Neill stated, “I have never had a home, never had a chance to establish roots. I grew up in hotels...It’s strange, but the time I spent at sea on a sailing ship was the only time I ever felt I had roots in any place.”    Tao House was a refuge for O’Neill.   In early 1937 he and Carlotta were living in a SF hotel:  “No roots.  No home”, Carlotta wrote as they searched for a place to live.  Drawn to the pirvacy and climate of the San Ramon Valley, they purchased a 158 acre ranch near Danville.    O’Neill’s interest in Eastern thought and Carlotta’s passion for Oriental art and décor inspired the name”Tao House”  Tao, “the Way”..the sea symbolized for 'ONeill the “impelling, inscrutable forces behind life which it is my ambition to at least faintly shadow...in my plays.”  Of Tao House, he asserted,  “This is a final home and harbor for me.”  

 Life at Tao House

Carlotta channeled her energy into a house which had a Spanish exterior but a Chinese house interior...they rarely spent a night away from their house.  She typed up all of his manuscripts and guarded his privacy.  Carlotta  called O’Neill the “master”  and they as a couple were reclusive.  O’Neill enjoyed gardening and attending football games in anonymity.  He worked on several plays at a time on two desks in a study which required three doors to enter~  Carlotta insured that his isolation was undisturbed.  He rose early and worked uninterrupted from early morning to 1:00 pm.  After lunch he napped and then swam in the pool or walked with Carlotta...though sometimes he worked without break into the night.  He also devoted time to his dog Glemie, a surrogate child, with a diamond collar, and bed and gourmet meals...in the evenings the couple usually read or listened to jazz or blues.  He met her first when she was acting in one of his minor plays in NYC and he thought she was awful.  A decade later, they met again in NYC and ended up in marriage...! He was disreputable in appearance and she decided he needed someone to take care of him, and she decided she was the one. She had had three marriages, or perhaps even four. 

I find Liu Haiping’s edited edition in the bookstore!  Of course, I had totally forgotten the connection, the most important English Scholar, had become free to travel, due to his expertise on Eugene O Neill....