The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller

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This comprehensive volume brings together essays by one of the most influential literary, cultural and intellectual voices of our time: Arthur Miller. Arranged chronologically from 1944 to 2000, these writings take the reader on a whirlwind tour of modern history alongside offering a remarkable record of Miller's views on theater. They give eloquent expression to his belief in 'the theater as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone'. Published with the essays are articles that Miller had written and in-depth interviews he has given. This collection features material from two earlier publications: Echoes Down the Corridor and The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. It is edited and features a new introduction by Matthew Roudan, Regents Professor of American Drama at Georgia State University. Arthur Miller understands that serious writing is a social act as well as an aesthetic one, that political involvement comes with the territory. A writers work and his actions should be of the same cloth, after all. His plays and his conscience are a cold burning force. Edward Albee

Reviews

[A] prodigious collection ... combin[ing] Miller's theatre essays, his analytical musings ... his satires ... and his autobiographical reflections. * Times Literary Supplement *
In reading this definitive collection of the playwright's pieces, covering some thirty years, and subjects ranging from Willy Loman's fall to After The Fall, from Ibsen to O'Neill, from the commercial hit-flop approach to subsidised theatre, you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as playwright, who knows what he's about. -- Studs Terkel * Chicago Tribune, on The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller *
A book that is guaranteed to please anyone lucky enough to buy or receive a copy ... Readers of this weighty tome can get their teeth into writings from 1944 right up to the Millennium ... [including] a number of interviews that vary from the tediously academic at one end of the scale to the highly entertaining and informative at the other ... Rather than going on at great length about such a wonderful collection, it is far better to recommend it wholeheartedly and then give readers a little longer to enjoy the book itself. * British Theatre Guide *
The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller, finely edited by Matthew Roudan,is a welcome new addition to Millers oeuvre that, for the first time, combines his theater and non-theater essays together in one volume ... The strengths of the collection are Roudans careful selection of essays and their organization. * The Arthur Miller Journal *
Arthur Miller understands that serious writing is a social act as well as an aesthetic one, that political involvement comes with the territory. A writer's work and his actions should be of the same cloth, after all. His plays and his conscience are a cold burning force. * Edward Albee *

Author Bio

Arthur Miller was born on 17 October 1915 in Harlem, New York City. He was arguably the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century, his work including plays such as All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). In addition to the plays, his many other books included fiction, essays and the autobiography Time Bends. He died in 2005 at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. Dr Matthew Roudan is Professor of English and Chair at Georgia State University, USA.