Arthur Miller :: Biographies Bio Biography

A leading American playwright, Arthur Miller, b. New York City, Oct. 17, 1915, has enriched the Broadway stage for several decades. Although Millers dramas organise place in familial settings, he has made a paper for dealing with contemporary political and moral issues.Miller began writing plays enchantment a student at the University of Michigan, where several of his dramatic efforts were rewarded with prizes. In 1937, during his elder 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 film, 1948), winner of the Drama Critics Circle Award, and shoemakers last 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 few can engage it without making dangerous moral compromises. Death of a Salesman , with its expressionistic overtones, rest Millers most widely admired work. The keen social conscience pellucid in these plays has continued to manifest itself in Millers writing. In the Tony Award-winning The melting pot (1953), for instance, he wrote of the witch-hunts in colonial Salem, Mass., and implied a parallel with the congressional investigations into degeneracy then in progress. The probing psychological tragedy A follow from the Bridge (1955) questions the reasonableness of U.S. immigration laws. After the Fall (1964), which includes a thin disguised portrayal of Millers unhappy marriage to film actress Marilyn Monroe, offers a second, open consideration of the congressional investigations in which Miller had been personally involved. Two one-act plays, accident at Vichy (1964) and The Price (1968), deal with the universality of human responsibility and the misdeed that often accompanies survival and success.Millers later dramatic works include The creation of t he World and Other Business (1972), a play that seemed too openly didactic for both critics and audiences, and The Ride Down Mount Morgan (1991), which opened in London to mixed reviews. Imbued with a passionate morality and demonstrating the absolute guide for responsible, loving connections between people, most of Millers work is indeed didactic.Millers writings international the theater have been prolific and varied. His novel Focus (1945) is an ironic description 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.