Road, she knew that she was also buying a piece of Bermuda's history.

But little did she suspect that her initial mild interest in its most famous owner was to lead her on a journey of research that was to last for more than a decade.

Now, the search is done and this week, Mrs. Bluck Waters, who is well known as one of Bermuda's leading artists, steps into the literary arena with a book that traces `the Bermuda interlude' of one of America's greatest playwrights.

Eugene O'Neill and Family goes on sale this week, with a book-signing at the National Gallery on Thursday.

Eugene O'Neill, winner of Pulitzer prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature, purchased Spithead, built by privateer Hezekiah Frith in about 1780, as a family home in 1926. His daughter, Oona, who was to marry Charlie Chaplin, had just been born. The adjacent estate cottage, where O'Neill wrote a large part of his play, Strange Interlude, would later be sold off and in the '50s, Noel Coward would become the owner.

Although Mrs. Bluck Waters is better known as a painter, she in fact earned her writing credentials as a special correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and as a columnist for the New York Times. Modestly, she brushes this last accomplishment off, saying: "I wrote gardening articles just after the end of the war. I think they put up with me because they were probably short of people!'' She says that when she moved into Spithead, she knew little about Eugene O'Neill, but remembered seeing Greta Garbo in the movie of his play, Anna Christie.

As she settled into her new home, Mrs. Bluck Waters was surprised by the number of people who remembered the O'Neills and the tempestuous life they led there. She began to read all of his plays (quite an undertaking, as some of them are very lengthy) and to write down the stories she was told by people who had known, or worked for the family during their Spithead years. Many of the tales were quite extraordinary.

As little had been written about O'Neill's time in Bermuda, Mrs. Bluck Waters gradually realised that the information she had gathered would make an interesting book.

"I am very grateful to my fellow Bermudians who shared their memories with me. They are from all walks of life and told me about their association with the O'Neills and the amazing events that occurred.'' Noting that it took her about 12 years altogether to accumulate the stories, Mrs. Bluck Waters says her one regret is that several of those older people who had talked with her have since died. "But,'' she says, "I am so glad their memories live on.'' She says she feels she was very fortunate, for instance, to track down the butler who had worked for the family next door to Spithead. "He knew the O'Neills very well. When I met him he was in a rest home and he gave me a wonderful interview,'' she says.

Yale University, executor of Neill's literary estate, gave her full access to his papers in the Beinecke Library and she was also allowed to read Agnes O'Neill's letters to her husband, which are housed in the Houghton Theatre Collection at Harvard.

Mrs. Bluck Waters stresses that her book is not an academic work, but "a glimpse of the lives of the great dramatist and his family, in a time of accomplishments and sorrows set against the tranquil beauty of the Island.'' "I was told the Bermuda stories were important because they had never previously been recorded,'' she says.

The introduction to her book has been written by Prof. R. Bryer, an acknowledged authority on O'Neill at the University of Maryland.

After reading the manuscript, Travis Bogard, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, wrote her a letter in which he said: "You write with love, sympathy and understanding of the O'Neills.'' For the talented Joy Bluck Waters, her book on the O'Neills is just the latest event in a life crowded with pursuits, artistic and otherwise. She says: "Sometimes I feel like a lawyer. In the law firms they have to account for every 15 minutes of their time and I feel my life is a bit like that!'' Mrs. Bluck Waters, who went to school in England and Switzerland before attending art school in London, says that painting is still the great love of her life. She exhibited for many years at the Paris Salon and was an associate member of La Societe des Artistes Francaises. In London, her work was accepted by the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Women Artists Society and the Wildlife Society. She has also exhibited in Washington and in New York, where Gallery 90, on Madison Avenue has also carried her work.

In spite of all this, she still describes herself as someone who paints "for a hobby -- but people tell me I'm a professional.'' Today, she still paints with the famed Hewitt Workshops from San Diego, which travels to various locations, such as Bermuda and Europe.

A current project involves another love -- the game of croquet. A series of her paintings of croquet lawns in the US and Bermuda were featured at the Palm Beach Polo & Country Club and she will be contributing to another show at the Newport Art Gallery during the United States Croquet Championships this year.

Her work will also be reproduced in the US Croquet Association Journal.

Mrs. Bluck Waters' artistic gifts have been put to good use in her new book.

There are line drawings throughout and the cover is a reproduction one of her oil paintings of Harbour Road.

She says that she has been especially gratified by the reaction of one young person who read her book while it was still in manuscript form.

"She said it made her want to know more about O'Neill. I hope that other people -- of all ages -- will feel the same.'' Speaking generally about education and literacy standards in Bermuda, Mrs.

Bluck Waters says she shares the current concerns.

"Bad grammar and use of your own language is a handicap for life,'' she comments.

Personally, she says, she would like to see more specialist teachers to deal with problem children and ideally, a teacher with a degree in psychology in every school, so that students can be "turned around from being tiresome children to real achievers. Teachers should not be baby-sitters, '' she emphasises.

"It's not the million-dollar building that makes a good student. When I was at school we had outside privies and we had to draw our drinking water up in buckets. But the teaching was wonderful.'' Eugene O'Neill and Family -- The Bermuda Interlude, goes on sale at bookstores later this week. There will be a book-signing by Joy Bluck Waters at the National Gallery on Thursday, March 25 from 12 noon to 2.30 p.m.

A WRITER'S HOME -- Mrs. Joy Bluck Waters pictured in the garden of her home, Spithead. Her book, Eugene O'Neill and Family, traces the life of the great writer during the time that he was the owner of the famous old house.