Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays, 1944-2000 - Hardcover

Arthur Miller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670893145 ISBN 13: 9780670893140

Publisher: Viking, 2000

Synopsis

A collection of the playwright's unpublished essays chronicle modern history from the Holocaust to the Watergate scandal, reflect his stance on controversial subjects, and explores his post-World War II experiences.

About this title

About the Author:

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1963), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972) and The American Clock. He has also written two novels, Focus (1945), and The Misfits, which was filmed in 1960, and the text for In Russia (1969), Chinese Encounters (1979), and In the Country (1977), three books of photographs by his wife, Inge Morath. More recent works include a memoir, Timebends (1987), and the plays The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1993), which won the Olivier Award for Best Play of the London Season, and Mr. Peter's Connections (1998). His latest book is On Politics and the Art of Acting. Miller was granted with the 2001 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and in 1949 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

From Publishers Weekly:

The distinguished playwright's personal dignity and decency resonate throughout this low-key but affecting collection. Best known as the author of such modern classics as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller has always been intensely engaged in the political and social issues of his day, not just in America but around the world. The 50 essays collected here range from atmospheric reminiscences of his childhood in Brooklyn and studies at the University of Michigan, to accounts of visits to China, the Soviet Union and Turkey as an advocate for victims of governmental persecution. Deeply influenced by the radical culture of the 1930s and by his youth during the depression, Miller has always been firmly on the political left; there are several references to his brush with McCarthyism in the 1950s, and "The Battle of Chicago" recounts his experiences as an anti-Vietnam War delegate at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Yet he has never succumbed to utopian notions of human and political perfectibility. The existence of evil is a given, and the collection is haunted by the Holocaust, particularly the question of how much guilt the Germans as a nation must bear and how much can be attributed to passivity in the face of power and to the indifference to others' sufferings of which we all are capable. Dismay at many manifestations of modern capitalist culture jostle a bedrock commitment to free speech in this autumnal work (more than half the pieces appeared when Miller was over 50). Editor Centola does not consistently provide dates for the essays or identify the publications in which they appeared. Nonetheless, this is a welcome companion volume to Miller's Theater Essays, illuminating the fundamental beliefs that underpin his activism as well as his art. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0670893145
• ISBN 13: 9780670893140
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332
• Editor: Steven R. Centola