Author Robert M. Dowling to discuss his biography of playwright Eugene O'Neill, March 10, 2016

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Robert M. Dowling, author of the biography "Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts" (2014) Photo credit: Larry St. Pierre

ALBANY, NY (02/24/2016)(readMedia)-- Robert M. Dowling will discuss his recent biography Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts (2014) on Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. in the Huxley Theatre, New York State Museum, Cultural Education Center, Albany. Free and open to the public, the event is cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute and Friends of the New York State Library.

Robert M. Dowling's acclaimed biography Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts (Yale University Press, 2014) was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist and a Publishers Weekly "Top Ten Pick" for Literary Biography. The Irish Times reviewer described the book as "Fast-paced, highly readable . . . a powerful narrative, with a fresh perspective . . . building to a devastating last act." Nathan Lane in the New York Times ("By the Book") called the biography "Scrupulously researched and elegantly written . . . required reading for anyone in the theater." J. Michael Lennon, archivist and authorized biographer for the late Norman Mailer, said "Dowling's brilliant, unvarnished yet compassionate biography, written with verve and based on exciting new research, depicts how O'Neill transmogrified his personal agonies and triumphs into the greatest American drama of the 20th century. A definitive portrait."

Dowling's other books include Slumming in New York: From the Waterfront to Mythic Harlem (2007); the two-volume Critical Companion to Eugene O'Neill (2009); the anthology Eugene O'Neill and His Contemporaries: Bohemians, Radicals, Progressives, and the Avant Garde (co-edited with Eileen Herrmann, McFarland, 2011); and a compendium of opening night reviews, Eugene O'Neill: The Contemporary Reviews (co-edited with Jackson R. Bryer, Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Dowling serves on the editorial board of The Eugene O'Neill Review and the board of directors of the Eugene O'Neill Society. He is professor of English at Central Connecticut State University.

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