Eugene O'Neill (1888 -1953) was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature. He was the first American to use the technique of realism in his plays. His characters were often on the outskirts of society and spoke in American dialects. His characters were unsavory people who often performed inappropriate acts yet still hoped for more in life. They ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), The First Man (1922), and The Hairy Ape (1922). The Straw was produced in 1919. Anna Christie is a symbolic play about the daughter of a Swedish boat captain. She is a cynical young woman who falls in love with a brawny Irish seaman. When she confesses that she worked as a prostitute in Minnesota for a time, both her father and her lover repudiate her. The play won a Pulitzer Prize in 1922.