Arthur Miller :: Biographies Bio Biography

A leading American seewright, Arthur milling machine, b. New York City, Oct. 17, 1915, has enriched the Broadway point in time for several decades. Although Millers dramas take place in familial settings, he has make a reputation for dealing with contemporary political and moral issues.Miller began writing plays while a student at the University of Michigan, where several of his spectacular efforts were rewarded with prizes. In 1937, during his senior year, one of his early plays was presented in Detroit by the federal Theatre Project. In 1944 his The Man Who Had All the Luck won a prize offered by New York Citys Theatre Guild.With his first successes--All My Sons (1947 picture, 1948), winner of the gambol Critics rhythm Award, and Death of a Salesman (1949 film, 1952), winner of both the Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize--Miller condemned the American ideal of prosperity on the grounds that fewer can pursue it without making dangerous moral compromises. Death of a Salesman, with its expressionistic overtones, remains Millers most widely admired work. The keen loving conscience evident in these plays has continued to manifest itself in Millers writing. In the Tony Award-winning The Crucible (1953), for instance, he wrote of the witch-hunts in colonial Salem, Mass., and implied a couple with the congressional investigations into subversion then in progress. The probing psychological cataclysm A View from the Bridge (1955) questions the reasonableness of U.S. immigration laws. After the light (1964), which includes a thinly disguised portrayal of Millers unhappy marriage to film actress Marilyn Monroe, offers a second, candid consideration of the congressional investigations in which Miller had been in person involved. Two one-act plays, Incident at Vichy (1964) and The Price (1968), deal with the universality of gay responsibility and the guilt that often accompanies survival and success.Millers later dramatic kit and caboodle includ e The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), a play that seemed too openly didactic for both critics and audiences, and The Ride Down financial backing Morgan (1991), which opened in London to mixed reviews. Imbued with a passionate piety and demonstrating the absolute need for responsible, loving connections between people, most of Millers work is thusly didactic.Millers writings outside the theater have been prolific and varied. His novel strain (1945) is an ironic tale of anti-semitism. The screenplay for the Misfits (1961) is only one of several he has written. In 1969 he wrote In Russia, a travel piece with illustrations by his wife, the photographer Inge Morath.