While I'm online, I will post some links about playwright Arthur Miller. The picture above is of the author in 1949, the year that Death of a Salesman became such a hit.Since Miller's plays were quite popular in the UK, the BBC has an excellent obituary. You may also see clips of his plays at this site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/233032.stm
The slideshow below gives you an idea of his career as well:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4258123.stm
The Guardian's obituary provides more background:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/feb/12/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
Here British directors give their thoughts on Miller's legacy:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/feb/12/arts.filmnews?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
The NY Times has collected its articles from the later part of his career:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/theater/newsandfeatures/MILLER-REF.html
Or you may prefer to read Miller's own thoughts from 2001:
http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/miller/lecture.html
http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/miller/interview.html
Miller is also known for his short marriage to Marilyn Monroe.
Susan Doll's essay discusses The Misfits, a movie that Miller wrote for his wife towards the end of their marriage.
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/marilyn-monroe-final-years3.htm
Another of Miller's most well-known plays is The Crucible, a play set during Salem's 1692 witch trials. See this link for a review of a recent London production:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/03/the-crucible-review
I'll close with a picture of 1910s New York City. It's incredible to see how crowded the city streets were.
8 comments:
Did not know Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe. Very cool!
Yes! Both of them had interesting lives and were complex people.
While doing a project about the Salem Witch Trials, I came across The Crucible, but I didn't know it was written by Arthur Miller. That's interesting.
Yes. :) There's also a movie version, probably from the 1990s.
I did not know Miller was married to Marylin Monroe either, and it is also very surprising how the play does not mention the great depression and the War!
Yes, Miller actually did not serve in WWII because he had a football injury (knee). However, the Depression did affect Miller & his family, and he graduated from high school right in the middle of it. Fortunately, he was able to go to college at the University of Michigan.
I wonder if there could be a connection between the fact that Miller did not serve in the WWII and he also avoided sending his two characters Biff and Happy to WWII or Did he purposely ignore this fact to avoid adding a complication to the flow of the story. May be an audience today will not be able to relate to the story if war was a component in it? or perhaps it will distract the audience from the struggles of the main characters..?
I suspect that Miller's reasons were a little of both. I wonder if anyone actually asked him why neither Biff nor Happy served in WWII.
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