O'Neill's Memoir

O'Neill wrote the play when he was 41 or 42 and left instructions that it wasn't supposed to be published until 25 years after his death. O'Neill himself is in the play as the character Edmund. It's because of the less than flattering portrait he paints of his entire family, including himself. I think that it was a little too close for home for him. He did not want to see it.