All God's Chillun Got Wings (play)

First edition cover
(published by Boni and Liveright)

All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924) is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill about miscegenation inspired by the old Negro spiritual.^[1] He began developing ideas for the play in 1922, emphasising its authenticity in his notes: "Base play on his experience as I have seen it intimately."^[2] O'Neill wrote the play in the autumn of 1923 and revised the text only slightly for its 1924 publication.^[3] Arguably one of his most controversial of plays, it starred Paul Robeson in the premiere,^[4] in which he portrayed the Black husband of an abusive White woman, who, resenting her husband's skin colour, destroys his promising career as a lawyer.^[5]

^ Dowling, Robert (2014). Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts. Yale: New Haven.
^ Floyd, Virginia, ed. (1981). Eugene O'Neill at Work. New York: Frederick Ungar, p. 53. ISBN 0-8044-2205-2
^ Bogard, Travis, ed. (1988) Eugene O'Neill, Complete Plays 1920–1931. New York: Library of America, p. 1079. ISBN 0-940450-49-6
^ "American Experience – Eugene O'Neill – A Controversial Play – PBS". PBS. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
^ "All God's Chillun". Time. March 17, 1924. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2007. The dramatic miscegenation will shortly be enacted in the Provincetown Playhouse, Manhattan, by a brilliant Negro named Paul Robeson ...

[1] Dowling, Robert (2014). Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts. Yale: New Haven.

[2] Floyd, Virginia, ed. (1981). Eugene O'Neill at Work. New York: Frederick Ungar, p. 53. ISBN 0-8044-2205-2

[3] Bogard, Travis, ed. (1988) Eugene O'Neill, Complete Plays 1920–1931. New York: Library of America, p. 1079. ISBN 0-940450-49-6

[:0-4] "American Experience – Eugene O'Neill – A Controversial Play – PBS". PBS. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2017-08-24.

[5] "All God's Chillun". Time. March 17, 1924. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2007. The dramatic miscegenation will shortly be enacted in the Provincetown Playhouse, Manhattan, by a brilliant Negro named Paul Robeson ...

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