Author
English Lit: AQA A Level Death of a Salesman, topic 1.1.1
Introduction to the Author: Early Life
Arthur Miller is one of the most celebrated American playwrights of the 20th Century.
Early life
- Miller was born in 1915 to a middle-class Jewish family in New York City.
- He grew up in the neighbourhood of Brooklyn, his once-comfortable family struggling to cope financially after the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s.
Personal influences
- This experience of early poverty and struggle helped shape Miller’s worldview.
- His plays often explore the overwhelming economic and political forces which affect the fortunes of ordinary individuals trying, and at times tragically failing, to make their way in the world.
All My Sons
- Miller’s first stage success came in 1947 with All My Sons, a drama exploring one family’s turmoil after one of its sons is listed as ‘missing in action’ while fighting in World War 2.
- The play resonated with American audiences, many of whom had suffered their own wartime losses.
Death of a Salesman (1949)
- Miller’s next play, Death of a Salesman (1949), was an even bigger Broadway hit, earning him the Pulitzer Prize and national fame.
- Again, Miller had caught the mood of American audiences with a tale of one man’s struggles to fulfil his dreams in a rapidly changing society.
Introduction to the Author: Later Life
After the success of Death of a Salesman, Miller became a prominent figure in American life during the 1950s.
Rise to prominence
- Miller married Marilyn Monroe, the most famous actress of the day, in 1956.
- The success of plays such as The Crucible (1953) and A View from the Bridge (1955) confirmed his reputation as a powerful social commentator.
Communism
- In 1952 Miller was called before the House of Un-American Activities, accused of being a Communist sympathiser.
- Despite the pressure placed upon him, he refused to give the names of friends to the committee, leading to his own punishment.
International recognition
- Miller’s courage and principles earned him international respect and he became an outspoken defender of freedom for his fellow writers around the world.
Death
- Miller died at his home in Connecticut in 2005.
Test yourself on Author
When was Arthur Miller born?
Which prize did Death of a Salesman (1949) win?
When and where did Arthur Miller die?