{"product_id":"arthur-miller-american-witness-9780300276794","title":"Arthur Miller: American Witness","description":"\u003cb\u003eA great theater critic brings twentieth-century playwright Arthur Miller's dramatic story to life with bold and revealing new insights\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Lahr's cogent analyses are revelatory. . . . He does not reduce the work to the life, but shows how it explains the life from which it emerges.\"--Willard Spiegelman, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e critic Lahr shines in this searching account of the life of playwright Arthur Miller. . . . It's a great introduction to a giant of American letters.\"--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915-2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater to a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller's life--his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller's role as a public intellectual--this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller's psychology and his plays. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Concentrating largely on Miller's most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller's early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, \u003ci\u003eFocus\u003c\/i\u003e; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include \u003ci\u003eAll My Sons\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDeath of a Salesman\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Crucible\u003c\/i\u003e, providing an original interpretation of Miller's work and his personality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Lahr\u003c\/b\u003e has been a contributor to the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e since 1991, where for twenty-one years he was its senior drama critic. He is the author of eighteen books, including \u003ci\u003eTennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. He is the first critic to win a Tony Award, for coauthoring \u003ci\u003eElaine Stritch at Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50542781333778,"sku":"9780300276794","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6e2d3b7b-e667-4049-a14a-3cccb2faad90.jpg?v=1731496053","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/arthur-miller-american-witness-9780300276794","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}