Arthur Miller: Collected Plays—the second volume in the definitive Library of America edition of the works of the essential American dramatist—presents fourteen memorable plays, from Broadway hits to previously unpublished rarities, offering an unprecedented look at Miller's extraordinary middle phase.
The volume opens with After the Fall (1964), Miller's much-anticipated return to the theater after an eight-year hiatus. An imaginative tour de force that unfolds within the mind of its main character, Quentin, the play struck some viewers as scandalous for its apparent revelations about Miller's marriage to the late Marilyn Monroe. Incident at Vichy (1964) dramatizes the roundup of Jews in Vichy France during World War II in a vivid and harrowing single act. The Price (1968)—Miller's biggest Broadway success since Death of a Salesman—portrays the relationship between two brothers, a successful surgeon and a struggling policeman, as they negotiate the sale of their dead father's belongings. Like The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), a "catastrophic comedy" about Adam, Eve, and original sin updated for modern times, the witty Up from Paradise (1974) treats characteristically grand themes in what was for Miller an uncharacteristically comedic and musical vein.
Taken together, the plays in this collection trace the remarkable, evolving range of Miller's genius as he experimented with new forms and themes. The American Clock (1974), based on Studs Terkel's Hard Times, offers a broad, stirring panorama of American life during the Depression years. By contrast, The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)—set in an ornate apartment in eastern Europe that may or may not be bugged—is as intricately plotted and psychologically complex as a spy thriller. Playing for Time (1980), a groundbreaking teleplay based on a firsthand account by a Holocaust survivor, tells the story of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. Also included are several shorter one-act plays and dramatic sketches—The Reason Why (1970, published here for the first time), Fame (1970), The Poosidin's Resignation (1976), I Think About You a Great Deal (1982), Elegy for a Lady (1982), and Some Kind of Love Story (1982).
A fifty-page selection of Miller's notes and essays on the plays—including a thoroughgoing critique of Method acting, never before published—rounds out the volume.
Tony Kushner, editor, is one of America's most acclaimed playwrights. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches), two Tony Awards for Best Play, two Obie Awards, and two Drama Desk Awards; his screenplay for the film Munich was nominated for an Academy Award. Kushner's writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Nation, and The Advocate.

In the inaugural volume of its collected edition of Miller's plays, The Library of America gathers the works from the 1940s and 1950s that electrified theatergoers and established Miller as one of the indispensable voices of the postwar era. Among the plays included are All My Sons , the story of an industrialist confronted with his moral lapses during World War II; Death of a Salesman , the wrenching tragedy of Willy Loman's demise; The Crucible , at once a riveting reconstruction of the Salem witch trials and a parable of McCarthyism; and A View from the Bridge , Miller's tale of betrayal among Italian immigrants in Brooklyn, presented here in both the original one-act and revised two-act versions. This volume also contains the intriguing early drama The Man Who Had All the Luck , the first of Miller's plays to be produced on Broadway, along with his adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People , the autobiographical one-act A Memory of Two Mondays , and Miller's novella The Misfits , based on the screenplay he wrote for Marilyn Monroe.

Victor, a New York cop nearing retirement, moves among furniture in the disused attic of a house marked for demolition. Cabinets, desks, a damaged harp, an overstuffed armchair - the relics of a lost life of affluence he's finally come to sell. But when his brother Walter, who he hasn't spoken to in years, arrives, the talk stops being just about whether Victor's been offered a fair price for the furniture, and turns to the price that one and not the other of them paid when their father lost both his fortune and the will to go on!

Arthur Miller’s penultimate play, Resurrection Blues , is a darkly comic satirical allegory that poses the question: What would happen if Christ were to appear in the world today? In an unidentified Latin American country, General Felix Barriaux has captured an elusive revolutionary leader. The rebel, known by various names, is rumored to have performed miracles throughout the countryside. The General plans to crucify the mysterious man, and the exclusive television rights to the twenty-four-hour reality-TV event have been sold to an American network for $25 million. An allegory that asserts the interconnectedness of our actions and each person’s culpability in world events, Resurrection Blues is a comedic and tragic satire of precarious morals in our media-saturated age.

Set in Brooklyn, this gripping mystery begins when attractive, level-headed Sylvia Gellburg suddenly loses her ability to walk. The only clue to her mysterious ailment lies in her obsession with news accounts from Germany.

Set in Brooklyn, this gripping mystery begins when attractive, level-headed Sylvia Gellburg suddenly loses her ability to walk. The only clue to her mysterious ailment lies in her obsession with news accounts from Germany.

The Portable Arthur Miller is a rich cross section of sixty years of writing from one of this century's most influential and humane playwrights.

Contents:
Death of a Salesman
The Crucible
Incident at Vichy
The Price
The Misfits [I] (the original story)
From The Misfits [II] (a cinema novel)
Fame (a story)
Fitter's Night (a story)
From In Russia
Lines from California (a poem)
Bibliography of works by Arthur Miller