Arthur Miller, author of many plays and novels, was born in New York City on October 17, 1915. Miller's mother and father divorced when he was a small child. Arthur lived with his father who was a ladies-wear manufacturer and shopkeeper. Arthur Miller and his father moved to Brooklyn, New York when Arthur was ten. Arthur spent his time playing football, baseball, and reading adventure books. The people that knew Miller while he was in high school considered him to be "nonintellectual".
Miller graduated high school in 1932. To raise money for college he worked in automobile parts. After reading a novel by Dostoevsky called The Brothers Karamazov, Arthur knew he wanted to become a writer.
In 1934, Miller went to the University of Michigan where he studied journalism. During his senior year, Miller won a couple playwriting awards. In 1938, Arthur Miller graduated from college with a degree in English.
Arthur Miller, American playwright
Arthur Miller in Washington Square Park. The photo...
English: , Republican representative from Nebraska...After college, Miller joined the FTP (Federal Theatre Project). This gave him a job where he was writing scripts for radio programs such as CBS and NBC. In 1940, Miller met and married a Catholic girl by the name of Mary Slattery. With Mary, Miller had two children.
In 1944, Miller's first play to be on Broadway, The Man Who Had All The Luck, was being performed. However, after four plays, this play was shut down. Miller's next big hit was All My Sons, which won New York Critics Circle Award in 1947. It wasn't until 1949 that Miller became internationally famous with his play, The Death of a Salesman. During that same year, Arthur Miller was presented with "Outstanding Father of the Year" award.
Miller was subjected to scrutiny in 1950 while the U.S. Congress was investigating Communist influence in the arts. When Miller's play, The Crucible, came out, he was denied a passport to go to the premiere viewing. In 1956, Miller was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities but denied that he was a Communist. Also during this year, Miller divorced his wife and married Marilyn Monroe. Nevertheless, the marriage between Miller and Monroe only lasted until 1961 when they got divorced due to her drug problems. Between the years of 1955 and 1964, Miller wrote nothing. Though after his nine-year absence, he came back with the play After the Fall. In 1962, Miller married photographer, Inge Morath, with whom he has co-written two books with. Arthur Miller was, and still is, considered one of America's best-known playwrights.
Arthur Miller
Marilyn Monroe, dancing with Eli Wallach, and Clar...
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," For Kids!