Figure 1.--These photographs were taken in the town of New London, Connecticut, the picturesque place where Eugene spent much of his early childhood. He is sitting on a large rock near the sea and apparently writing in a notebook which he kept as a child--an early adumbration, perhaps, of his calling as an author and playwright. Click on the image to see the second photograph.

Eugene was born in a Broaway hotel room in 1888. He had a brother several years older. He was brought up in New York City and New London, Connecticut. He accompanied his fanous father as he traveled around the country giving dramatic performanes. Much of his childhood was spent in New London. We have two photographs of Eugene as a boy of about 10 years of age. These photographs were taken in the town of New London, Connecticut, the picturesque place where Eugene spent much of his early childhood. He is sitting on a large rock near the sea and apparently writing in a notebook which he kept as a child--an early adumbration, perhaps, of his calling as an author and playwright. He seems to be wearing schooboy clothes--a dark suit with knee pants, long black stockings, high ankle-length boots (with little metal hooks for the shoe laces), and a peaked schoolboy cap. HBC already has a photograph of Eugene on the porch of his family home taken a couple of years later when he was about 12 or 13. These photographs are very natural--not posed, as many photos of the period were. But the look of intense, unsmiling concentration on the boy's face already suggests the profound unhappiness that he infused into autobiographical plays such as "Long Day's Journey Into Night".

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Created: 12:57 AM 7/15/2006
Last updated: 12:57 AM 7/15/2006