Miller the Playwright

Early in his career, Miller wrote radio plays and in 1945 his first novel Focus was published.

In 1949 Miller won the Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for what is generally regarded as his most famous play Death of a Salesman.

The most recent film version, starring Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich (1984) is most like the theatrical production (Miller, 322).

He began work on The Crucible after a copy of a book about the witch hunts titled The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion Starkey coincidently fell into his hands (Miller, 330). In 1961 he wrote The Misfits for his then wife, Marilyn Monroe. The Misfits starred Clark Gable as Marilyn's leading man and it was the last movie that either Marilyn or Clark would ever make (Miller, 382-385).

Arthur Miller wrote twenty-five plays over a career spanning more than fifty years. He died at his home on the10th February 2005 aged 89.