Arthur Miller (1915–2005)

Arthur Miller was born to a Jewish family in New York in 1915. His grandparents had come to America from Poland. When the family business failed, they moved to Brooklyn, where A View from the Bridge is set. There, Arthur worked in a warehouse to earn money for his university fees.

He began to write plays while he was a student at the University of Michigan and continued to do so after he graduated in 1938 and became a journalist. He received much acclaim from All My Sons in 1947; Death of a Salesman (1949) - which won the Pulitzer Prize - and The Crucible (1952) confirmed him as a great playwright.

Between his years as a journalist and making his name as a writer, Miller worked in the Brooklyn shipyards for two years, where he befriended the Italians he worked alongside. He heard a story of some men coming over to work illegally and being betrayed. The story inspired A View from the Bridge, which was written in 1955. It was originally a one-act play, but Miller re-worked it into a two-act play the following year.

Miller's first marriage ended in divorce in 1956. He then married the actress Marilyn Monroe, but they divorced in 1961. His third marriage was to a photographer, Inge Morath.

Most of his work is set in the America of the day and portrays realistic characters and events. He deals with political and moral issues and weaves in ideas from Greek tragedy. He is interested in how personal relationships dictate the way one leads one's life and about people's struggles to do what is right.

Miller died in 2005 at the age of 89. Today, he is regarded as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century.

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His Works

Plays

The Golden Years

The Man Who Had All the Luck

All My Sons

Death of a Salesman

An Enemy of the People

The Crucible

A View from the Bridge

After the Fall

A Memory of Two Mondays

Incident at Vichy

The Price

The Creation of the World and Other Business

The Archbishop’s Ceiling

The American Clock

Playing for Time

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

Broken Glass

Mr. Peters’ Connections

Resurrection Blues

Finishing the Picture

One-Act Plays

A View from the Bridge (one-act version)

A Memory of Two Mondays

Fame   /    The Reason Why   

Two Way Mirror:   

Elegy for a Lady  

Some Kind of Love Story

Danger: Memory!   

I Can’t Remember Anything 

Clara

The Last Yankee

Reference : "Arthur Miller Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335>.