O'NEILL, EUGENE; DUDLEY NICHOLS (INTRODUCTION) — The Emperor Jones / the Straw

The Modern Library, 1928. Hardcover. 223 pages. Clean text, bright gold-stamped dark brown leatherette. Nameplate, name inside date Jan 1929. Back board has a paste-in summary of both books, which states that "The Emperor Jones" 1920 production put the final seal of O'Neill's acceptance as one of Americas' most important dramatists - that the story is about the mental decline of Brutus Jones, the self-styled emperor of a West Indian island in the 1920s. Jones, a former Pullman porter and escaped convict, duped the natives into believing that he is a magician, that only silver bullets can harm him. The Straw (1922) is a three-act play about the characters Eileen Carmody and Stephen Murray, who are being treated for tuberculosis in a sanatorium. Complete list of titles in the Modern Library in the back of the book. G/NONE .