Playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) spent his early years as a merchant seaman and drifter on the waterfronts of New York, Liverpool, and Buenos Aires. From these experiences came the inspiration and subject matter for four of his finest short plays, collected in this volume.
Written between 1913 and 1917 and considered to have made O'Neill's reputation, the plays comprise a tetralogy, all concerning the same ship, the S.S. Glencairn. The plays are Bound East for Cardiff, In the Zone, The Long Voyage Home, and The Moon of the Caribbees. These realistically presented melodramas depict moody, intense, and fascinating characters entrapped by larger forces, usually represented by the sea. This edition, which offers all four plays in a single inexpensive volume, provides a splendid introduction to the work of an important modern dramatist.