Arthur Miller, John Lahr
Arthur Miller, John Lahr
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Arthur Miller
American Witness

Author: John Lahr

Narrator: John Rubinstein

Unabridged: 8 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2022

Synopsis

A distinguished theater critic brings twentieth-century playwright Arthur Miller’s dramatic story to life with bold and revealing new insights.John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915–2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater to a new level of cultural sophistication.This book, organized around the fault lines of Miller’s life—his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller’s role as a public intellectual—demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller’s psychology and his plays.Concentrating largely on Miller’s most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller’s early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, Focus; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible, providing an original interpretation of Miller’s work and his personality.

About John Lahr

John Lahr has been a contributor to the New Yorker since 1991, where for twenty-one years he was its senior drama critic. He is the author of eighteen books, including Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

About John Rubinstein

John Rubinstein made his debut as the title role in Bob Fosse’s Pippin. He is a skillful, AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has read works by Jonathan Kellerman, Orson Scott Card, Tom Clancy, and Gabriel Brownstein. Rubinstein is also a successful actor and has acted in the films Jekyll, Choose Conner, The Truth About Layla, and 21 Grams.  His television credits include The Young and the Restless, Greek, Desperate Housewives, Day Break, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, CSI and Law & Order.

Reviews

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Quotes

“This succinct and gorgeously written portrait offers a keen psychological appraisal of Miller’s works and of Miller himself.” Boston Globe

“With rapt enthusiasm and fine attention to detail, narrator John Rubinstein…delivers this production as a critical appreciation and as a celebration of a singular and wholly American talent.” AudioFile

“Lahr’s slender, sharp biography offers an engaging account of the playwright’s life…[and] provides a penetrating interpretation of Arthur Miller’s canonical works.” Christian Science Monitor

“Lahr’s cogent analyses are revelatory but not surgical, and his sympathy never cloys…a critic who understands drama on the page and in the house.” Wall Street Journal

“Lahr, a prominent theater critic, delivers a no-filler biography that still leaves room for his keen critical insights.” East Hampton Star (New York)

“Lahr shines in this searching account…Lahr’s at his best using small moments to illuminate his subject…It’s a great introduction to a giant of American letters.” Publishers Weekly

“Shows the ways in which [Miller’s] truth-seeking spirit manifested itself in one of the most storied playwriting careers ever…[and] how Miller’s experiences informed plays such as The Golden Years, The Price, The Crucible, and the Pulitzer-winning Salesman.” Kirkus Reviews

“Utterly captivating.” Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize–winning essayist and author

“Lahr lets us see the great American playwright with new eyes…No one writes more perceptively about the twentieth century theater than John Lahr.” John Guare, playwright, author of Six Degrees of Separation  

“Deeply readable and entertaining…Offers unique insight into how Miller’s mind works and how the details of his biography impacted his body of work.” Sarah Ruhl, playwright and MacArthur Fellow

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