Arthur Miller
1915–2005 · American playwright, author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible.
Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. His father's clothing business was ruined in the Depression, and the family moved to Brooklyn. Miller worked in a warehouse to pay for college and studied at the University of Michigan, where he began writing plays and won student prizes. His first Broadway success was All My Sons (1947), about a manufacturer who sold faulty airplane parts during the war. Death of a Salesman (1949), the story of the aging traveling salesman Willy Loman and his family, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is among the most performed American plays. The Crucible (1953) is set during the Salem witch trials of 1692 and was written during the era of congressional investigations of suspected communists; Miller himself was later called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to name others. His other plays include A View from the Bridge. He was married from 1956 to 1961 to the actress Marilyn Monroe. He died in Connecticut in 2005.
Arthur Miller is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Born into a Jewish family; Jewish identity is a theme of some of his plays. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Key dates
- 1915 Born in New York City
- 1947 All My Sons on Broadway
- 1949 Death of a Salesman; Pulitzer Prize
- 1953 The Crucible staged
- 1955 A View from the Bridge staged
- 2005 Dies in Connecticut
Fun facts
- A minor planet, 3769 Arthurmiller, is named after him. (Source: Arthur Miller (Wikipedia))
Record-breaker
Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").
- In 1965 he became the first American president of PEN International, the worldwide writers' association. (Source: Arthur Miller (Wikipedia))
Read about them
Grades 9–12
- Death of a Salesman · In the library
- A View from the Bridge · In the library
More lives
Richard Adams · Tamim Ansary · Paul Auster · Donald Barthelme · Saul Bellow · Nathaniel Benchley