That also contradicts what Gallup wrote in '63 (written 1936, published 1957) [also Yale University Press]. He went on to say that, by '43, Poet was the only one he had "complet[ed] to his satisfaction" (saying re Mansions that he "had partly finished his revision of the third draft" before shifting gears away from the cycle to write Iceman, Journey, Hughie and Moon). I think Bowers may have just been sloppy. The rest of the chronology: 1st draft completed 9/8/38, 2nd 1/1/39, 3rd (first typed one) 1/20/39. He then added: "Further revisions and notes for rewriting were made in 1940 and 1941, and O'Neill was sufficiently satisfied with the play" such that when they burned the earlier drafts in '43, he kept the typed draft with the destroy at death notation.
Re the Times article, assuming you want to believe Gallup, it is entirely possible they had what they would have considered a good source, Carlotta, who presumably for some period thought it had been destroyed.
There is a single page of the typescript included in the '64 preface. It kinda shows why he might not have wanted anyone to see it. LOL On the one hand, I wish everything were extant. On the other, I shred stuff all the time. |
