The name of Arthur Miller is always linked in my mind to one woman. The beautiful, tragic Marilyn - Norma Jean. It also rings out with 'The Crucible' and 'Death of a Salesman', two powerful literary and theatrical masterpieces of the 20th century. But there is, as always, much more to a man's life, a man whose work is considered equal to that of other iconic American playwrights, namely Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. Like many great writers, for Miller, things did not come easy; success and recognition did not happen overnight. He worked and struggled for years, but never lost sight of his art and his purpose.

Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan, New York, on October 17, 1915. His parents were Jewish immigrants, his father had a garment manufacturing business, but as this began to fail, with the onset of the Great Depression, they moved to Broooklyn. After graduating from Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln HIgh School, Arthur took various jobs, just to get the money for college. He started at the University of Michigan in 1934, with enough money to get him through the first year. Still he worked; he was night editor on the paper 'Michigan Daily, and received some financial help from the National Youth Administration. He graduated in 1938, achieving a B.A., having spent his university years learning to write, and writing plays. In fact, this work earned him some money and recognition. In 1936, he got $500, and $1200 in the form of the Theater Guild National Award for his play, 'The Grass Still Grows.'

Going back to New York in 1938, Miller joined the Federal Theater Project, but this folded. So, he worked at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn while still continuing to write, mostly radio scripts, but also two books, one of which, 'Focus' dealt with anti-Semetism.

In 1944, his play 'The Man Who Had All The Luck,' was badly received by critics. The themes of guilt and discontent in this work, were later to emerge as major aspects of his great works. When in 1947, he got his play 'All My Sons' on Broadway, with great critical success, he was on his way.

The powerful ideas of the tragic consequences within the play, of a man who sold faulty armament parts to save his business, reflected not only Miller's father's losses in some ways, but connected and related to a society that understood loss, the Depression and a world war. It is necessary to mention underlying themes in Miller's work, because the biographical facts all stem from his family,

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