Arthur Miller: Collected Plays Vol. 1 1944-1961 (Loa #163)

I purchased the book for a former student of mine as she loved studying Arthur Miller in our class. The hard-bound version is nice, and I like the thin paper used for the pages which add a special touch to the gift. The work also includes Miller's plays which I hope she will enjoy for years to come.

This is probably the best value you're going to find. You get 3 of Miller's best and most well known plays (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible) along with a few other shorter works. It comes in a very handsome edition, hard cover, even has the tassle book mark. My only initial complaint was with the "bible-thin pages." So if you're wanting to outline or take notes just get a pencil instead of a pen. It's a great time capsul and these are truly great works of American theater. Everyone should read these/see these on stage.

The collection had all the plays that I could have wanted by Arthur Miller. It was a smart buy and I can use it forever.

This volume of the earlier plays by Arthur Miller is not only very well done, it is a really interesting way to immerse oneself into the art of this very important American playwright. I am always delighted with the volumes produced by the Library of America and continue to stress that we owe them our support and gratitude. The plays collected here begin with "The Man Who Had All The Luck", the first of Miller's work to be produced on Broadway and ends with the novella Miller crafted from the screenplay for the movie "The Misfits" that Miller had done for Marilyn Monroe (his wife at the time). This is the period of "All My Sons, "Death of a Salesman", and "The Crucible" and several other of his best known works for the stage. Miller was born in New York City in 1915. As an aside, he did attend the University of Michigan here in Ann Arbor for a few years and that connection still matters. The University later gave him an honorary doctorate (one of those honorary degrees that is actually deserved for the significance of his life's work) and is now building a theater named after him. While his first Broadway play, "The Man Who Had All The Luck" was not a commercial success, it does, I think, provide us an insight into the recurring theme of Miller's work as well as its strengths and weaknesses. It is a play about a man who, for some strange reason, feels burdened for having a life full of good fortune and blessing. He wants to feel like he has earned his success and somehow, no matter what terrible fate is staring him in the face, some fortunate accident happens to turn lead into gold. David Beeves tempts fate with a very risky investment into raising mink and ends up betting his entire net worth on this crazy scheme. I don't want to discuss the ending of the play (because you should read it), but it seems strange to me that someone facing real life would feel burdened by success and look for pain and hardship to validate him. Yet, it is probably a real psychological state for some. Others have pointed out that this can also be a metaphor for the history of the United States and its internal struggles to deal with its own fortune in the world. And it is this emphasis on psychology and metaphor that can get in the way of the emotional beauty and honest observation of Miller's art. When Miller was writing these plays, psychology was at its zenith of popularity and like all popular ideas; it was simplified to the point of being vastly misunderstood. Now, decades after the fact, it seems for me like seeing someone wearing a wristwatch in a movie on the Roman Empire. For me, it isn't strongly convincing and gets in the way of enjoying the plays as much as I would like. This is particularly true of "A View From the Bridge" where Eddie's repressed (and maybe unadmitted even to himself) desire for his niece leads to hurt and pain for everyone's in the play. This is on display in both the one-act and two-act versions provided here. T