A comprehensive reader's companion to the works of one of America's greatest playwrights

Alice Griffin's appraisal of Arthur Miller's theatrical canon illumines the international importance of a playwright whose work is considered a mirror of American life. Griffin demonstrates that Miller's plays, though seemingly centered on uniquely American issues, speak to audiences from Brazil to Russia, Iceland to China—the last being a country where Death of a Salesman has enjoyed tremendous popularity despite the unfamiliarity of the Chinese people with Willy Loman's occupation.

Griffin discusses Miller's major plays in depth, analyzing characters, plots, themes, dramatic effects, and language. She also reviews his one-act plays and the longer plays of the 1980s; two outstanding plays of the 1990s, The Last Yankee and Broken Glass; his screenplay for the film version of The Crucible; and his many articles, essays, speeches, and introductions.

A theater editor and critic and drama professor when Miller's works were first staged, Griffin vividly recalls the harshness with which most reviewers initially judged Miller's plays and recounts the vigor of the McCarthyistic attack on The Crucible.

Alice Griffin is professor emerita and former director of graduate studies in English at Herbert H. Lehman College, The City University of New York.