Arthur Miller's Biography

A short biography about Arthur Miller:

Arthur Miller is an American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century. He was born in Harlem, New York in 1915, into a wealthy and successful family. His father owned a successful business, Miltex Coat and Suit. However, because of the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression, the family lost everything. The failure of the family business forced them to move to a smaller home in Brooklyn.

After graduating from high school, Miller worked at a bakery and as a clerk in a warehouse to support his family and to save enough money to attend the University of Michigan. Miller managed to attend the University of Michigan and he began writing plays while he was a student at that university. In 1938 he graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in literature.

Miller’s first Broadway-produced drama, “The Man Who Had All the Luck” was a dismal failure and it closed after only four performances. His next play, All My Sons, was an instant success. Miller received his first Tony Award for Best Author category for this play. After the success of “All My Sons,” his most popular and well-praised play is Death of a Salesman. It was the most produced play and won Miller a Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics' Circle Award. Miller's third Broadway play, The Crucible, is about the Salem Witch trials which was a metaphor for the MCcarthy investigations. Later on, The crucible has become one of the most studied and performed plays of American theater.

Miller has been married three times. His first marriage was to Mary Grace Slattery in 1940.However, Miller's first marriage ended in divorce in 1956. He then married the actress and Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. Their marriage lasted for 5 years but they divorced in 1961. His third marriage was to a photographer, Inge Morath and they remained married until her death.

In 1987, Miller published his autobiography Timebends. Miller continued to write until his death. He died in 2005, of congestive heart failure at the age of 89.

Miller’s works are about the condition of man and the individual struggle in modern society. Miller was concerned with the plight of man in modern world. His plays deal with moral, social, political and economic issues of the contemporary American Society. His writings were influenced by the major events of his lifetime, including the Great Depression, World War II, McCarthyism .Miller believes that the consequences of the Two World War and the depression of the 1930s have contributed to man’s disillusionment and despair.

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