Arthur Miller 19152005

1
Arthur Miller1915-2005

• American Playwright

Created by Mrs. Jenny Shickley
2
Significance to American Drama

• Miller transformed American theatre in the period
  immediately following the end of WWII.
• Miller was significantly influenced by both World
  Wars and the economical and social depressions
  that followed each.
• Millers tragic characters are reminiscent of
  both Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, though his
  characters are often commonplace and easily
  relatable.
• More than any modern playwright, Miller has
  dedicated himself to the investigation of the
  moral plight of the white American working class.

3
Early Life Family

• Born, October 17, 1915 in Manhattan, NY.
• - Mother was a school teacher, and father owned
  a small clothing manufacturing company.
• - Mother was born in America, but father was
  born in Austria.
• - One of three children in a solidly
  middle-class family.
• - His family was Jewish, and Miller was fluent
  in Yiddish.
• 1928 Family moves to Brooklyn because of the
  decline in his fathers business, which is later
  decimated by the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• Attended Abraham Lincoln High School where he
  played baseball and football.
• - He endured a major football injury that would
  later exempt him from the draft.
• - He appeared, for the most part, a
  non-intellectual.

4
Obtaining an Education

• After graduating high school in 1932, Millers
  family could not afford to send him to college.
• Miller worked as a clerk in an automobile parts
  warehouse to earn money to attend college.
• It was at this time that Miller read Dostoevskys
  The Brothers Karamazov and decided he wanted to
  become a writer.
• Miller attended the University of Michigan from
  1934 to 1938 where he earned a degree in English.
• - While in college, Miller twice won the
  prestigious Avery Hopwood Award for Student
  Writers, also awarded to Tennessee Williams
  (another famous American playwright).
• - One of his student plays was produced in
  Detroit by the Federal Theatre Project.

5
A Writers Life Begins

• After graduation, Miller returned to New York
  where he worked as a freelance writer (a writer
  for hire).
• - Miller wrote radio scripts and plays for CBS
  and NBC during WWII, but he made his living as
  a steam fitter.
• 1940 Married his college sweetheart, Mary
  Slattery (social worker), with whom he had two
  children.
• 1944 The Man Who Had All the Luck, first
  Broadway play.
• - This play was a complete failure, running
  only 4 days.
• 1945 FOCUS, a novel
• 1947 All My Sons, play
• - Awarded New York Drama Circle Award and two
  Tony Awards.
• 1949 Death of a Salesmen, play
• - Awarded both the New York Drama Circle Award
  and the Pulitzer Prize.
• - Play had over 700 performances and was
  translated into over 12 languages.
• - This play made him a MILLIONAIRE!

6
A Playwright Grows

• 1952 Death of a Salesmen, film
• 1953 The Crucible, play
• - Play was written to showcase the parallel
  between the frenzied Salem Witchcraft Trials and
  the hysterical House of Un-American Activities
  Committee (HUAC) investigations into Communist
  organizations in America, including prominent
  entertainers.
• - Tony Award winning.
• 1955 A Memory of Two Mondays, one-act play
• A View from the Bridge,
• one-act play
• 1956 Divorced current wife, Mary, and
• married actress, Marilyn Manroe.
• - Miller had actually stolen Marilyn
• from his former friend, Elia Kazan
• (director), who had turned in 8
• people as communists to the HUAC.

7
A Life Subjected

• 1956 Miller is called before the HUAC.
• - He admitted to attending 4 or 5 writers
  meetings sponsored by the Communist party in
  1947.
• - He supported a Peace Conference in New York,
  where he signed many appeals and protests.
• - He emphatically denied membership within the
  Communist party.
• - He refused to relinquish names of other
  people who attended or participated in any of
  meetings or activities with him.
• 1957 Miller is found guilty of contempt for
  refusing to give names to the HUAC but appeals
  the ruling.
• - Marilyn supported and assisted in a
  full-fledges media campaign to neutralize the
  negative publicity and salvage Millers career
  as a playwright.
• - John Steinbeck writes a defense of Miller,
  which is published in Esquire, that can be
  considered an ironic accusation against HUAC
  for anti-American activities.
• 1958 Millers appeal is successful, and the
  charge is reversed.

8
A Writers Life Continues

• 1959 Miller receives the Gold Medal for Drama
  by the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
• 1961 Divorced by Marilyn Monroe. Marriage had
  actually ended a year earlier with the production
  of the film Misfits.
• 1962 Marries Igne Morath, an Austrian-born
  photographer, with whom he has two more children.
• - Marilyn dies the same year.
• 1964 After the Fall, play
• - This play is believed to hold a thinly
  disguised portrayal of both his unhappy
  marriage with Marilyn and his dealings with
  the HUAC.
• 1964 Visits European concentration camps with
  wife and writes Incident at Vichy, which was
  inspired by the suffering and human guilt that
  surrounds the Holocaust, its victims, and its
  survivors.

9
The Writing of a Lifetime

• 1968 - The Price, play (again dealing with guilt
  and the human condition.
• 1969 In Russia, a travel book illustrated with
  is wifes photographs from their tour of Russia.
• 1972 The Creation of the World and other
  Business, play
• 1979 Chinese Encounters, a travel book
  illustrated with is wifes photographs from their
  tour of China.
• 1984 Salesman in Beijing, an account of the
  production of his play in China.
• 1985 Playing for Time, screen play, an account
  of a French survivors time in Auschwitz.

• 1987 Timebends A Life, autobiography
• 1991 The Ride Down Mount Morgan, play (opened
  in London).
• 1993 The Last Yankee, play
• 1994 Broken Glass, a play (title refers to
  Kristallnacht)
• 1995 Homely Girl And Other Stories ,
  collection of short-stories.
• 2004 Finishing the Picture, Millers last play
• February 10, 2005 Miller dies of heart failure
  at his Roxbury, Connecticut home.