Almanac of Story Tellers: Arthur Miller

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Oct. 17th

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    It is the 289th day of the year, leaving 76 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1915, the award-winning playwright, Arthur Miller, was born.

   

    He wrote his stories about typical working people who struggle and often are brought down by their flaws. But as the common man in his tales represented the average American, his flaws were those of the larger American society.

    He told those stories on the stage, mostly dramas and tragedies, in a realistic style set in  modern times. His vernacular writing was stark and simple, without flourishes, in keeping with his theme of the common person. His influences included Henrik Ibsen.

    These themes and style were most apparent in his best known, and perhaps his greatest play, Death of A Salesman. A simple, two-act play, told mostly in flashbacks and memories, it tells the story of Willy Loman through his own voice. Loman is defeated, feels betrayed by the American Dream, and acts as if his life amounted to little. He in turns defends and castigates his own actions.

    The play, which premiered on Broadway in 1949, won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama.

    Miller started writing as a college student at the University of Michigan. His first Broadway play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, flopped and closed after four performances in 1944. But his second, All My Sons -- based on a true story about a business-military payoff regarding defective aircraft -- was a hit. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Tony Award for Best Author. It played on Broadway for nearly two years.

    In reaction to the House on Un-American Activities Committee in the McCarthy era, Miller wrote The Crucible, setting the Salem Witch Trials in modern times. Miller did testify to the committee about his own activities, but refused to name any other people. He was found in contempt of Congress and blacklisted.

    Miller continued to write and was active in politics after the 1950s.

    He died in Roxberry, Conn., in 2005.