Arthur Miller Overview

Born in New York's Harlem in 1915, Arthur Miller was not a good student. After a lackluster high school career, he was ready to join his father's clothing business when he read Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov." Suddenly, the world changed -- Miller... [more]

Born in New York's Harlem in 1915, Arthur Miller was not a good student. After a lackluster high school career, he was ready to join his father's clothing business when he read Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov." Suddenly, the world changed -- Miller decided to dedicate his life to reading and writing. He worked for two years to save up enough money for college, then enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1934. Still extremely short on funds, Miller managed to supplement his income by winning awards for his student plays. Following graduation, he moved back to New York to work for CBS. After two unsuccessful plays, Miller rocked the theater world with his third attempt, "Death of a Salesman." It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 and is considered one of the great American plays of the twentieth century. In it, Miller condemns the American ideal of prosperity on the grounds that few can pursue it without making dangerous moral compromises. Another influential and controversial creation, "The Crucible," was a direct indictment of the McCarthy trials that eventually worked against Miller when he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956. Miller's keen, critical sense of social conscience remains evident in all his plays, including "View from the Bridge" (1955), which addresses the issues surrounding U.S. immigration laws, "Incident at Vichy" (1964), and "The Price" (1968). The latter two plays deal with "the universality of human responsibility and the guilt that often accompanies survival and success." [show less]