ALS: Sunday, February 22, 1920

(Letterhead: Prince George Hotel / Fifth Avenue & 28th Street)

Feb. 22, 1920

Dear Mr. Irvine:

I will not attempt to tell you how very much your note of appreciation meant to me. Praise from a man whose work I admire as sincerely as I do yours is praise indeed! Your letter was the most gratifying and happy event that the production of "Beyond The Horizon" has brought to me.

We owe you a tremendous lot -- the few of us in this country who are trying to write honestly for the theatre. I don't believe you can realize just how very significant "John Ferguson" was to us here. The general appreciation of it as a work of art, the fact that the public kept on going to see it -- a really fine play! -- why, it was an impossible dream come true, a grand big omen that put new heart in us and made us believe that the despaired-of dawn of finer possibilities had actually broken at last.

And I am certainly proud that it took an Irishman to wake up our public and give us writers new hope! (Yes, I'm of undiluted Irish blood on both sides of my family).

I am just tottering through the last stages of influenza, but as soon as I cease to be a coughing nuisance to myself and everyone else I hope to see "Jane Clegg". In the meantime all my cheers are with it.

Again let me thank you for the kindness of your note. Such an act of genuine consideration I can never forget.

Sincerely,

Eugene O'Neill.