A lost play by Eugene O'Neill, arguably America's greatest dramatist, has been published by the New Yorker magazine.

The one-act play, entitled Exorcism, was staged in March 1920 by the Provincetown Players, but, according to the New Yorker's theatre critic John Lahr, O'Neill destroyed what he believed to be every copy of the play in order to save his father, celebrated romantic actor James O'Neill, embarrassment after a stroke.

But a copy of the play was discovered earlier this year in the possession of screenwriter Philip Yordan, who had received it from O'Neill's ex-wife Agnes Boulton. Yale University Press will publish the script next spring.

Exorcism's resurfacing is significant for historical as well as artistic reasons, since it sheds light on the playwright's own suicide attempt aged 24. Written seven years later, Exorcism centres on Ned Malloy, a 24-year-old with "an appearance of conflict, of inner disharmony," who takes an overdose, before being discovered by his friend Jimmy. In the final moments of the play, Ned exclaims: "The Past is finally cremated. I feel reborn, I tell you!"

O'Neill began writing in earnest after his own suicide attempt. Introducing the text, Lahr writes: "Exorcism marks the tipping point – the moment in O'Neill's tortured life when he gave up the romance of death for the romance of art."

Born in 1888, O'Neill was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1936 for plays including Mourning Becomes Electra, Desire Under the Elms and Anna Christie, seen at London's Donmar Warehouse earlier this year in a production starring Jude Law and Ruth Wilson.

His subsequent works include The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for the Misbegotten and Long Day's Journey Into Night, a revival of which, directed by Anthony Page and starring Poirot actor David Suchet, will run at the Apollo Theatre in the West End next year.