After graduating in English in 1938, Miller returned to New York. There he joined the Federal Theatre Project, and wrote scripts for radio programs, such as Columbia Workshop (CBS) and Cavalcade of America (NBC). Because of a football injury, he was exempt from draft. In 1940 Miller married a Catholic girl, Mary Slattery, his college sweetheart, with whom he had two children. Miller's first play to appear on Broadway was “THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK” (1944). Three years later he produced “ALL MY SONS” was about a factory owner who sells faulty aircraft parts during World War II. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle award and two Tony Awards. In 1944 Miller toured Army camps to collect background material for the screenplay “THE STORY OF GI JOE” (1945). Miller's first novel, “FOCUS” (1945),
In 1949 Miller was named an "Outstanding Father of the Year", which manifested his success as a famous writer. In the 1990s Miller wrote such plays as “THE RIDE DOWN MOUNT MORGAN” (prod. 1991) and “THE LAST YANKEE” (prod. 1993), but in an interview he stated that "It happens to be a very bad historical moment for playwriting, because the theatre is getting more and more difficult to find actors for, since television pays so much and the movies even more than that. If you're young, you'll probably be writing about young people, and that's easier -- you can find young actors -- but you can't readily find mature actors." ('We're probably in an Art That Is -- Not dying’, The New York Times, January 17, 1993) In 2002 Miller was honoured with Spain's prestigious Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature, making him the first U.S. recipient of the award. Miller died of heart failure at home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on February 10, 2005.
BY Tugba Melek
A view from the bridge was made in 1950’s; its date of first publication was in 1955 and revised in 1957, which was published by penguin books. The play was set in New York in the Red Hook neighborhood in the borough of Brookyln. Most of the people in Red Hook originate from Sicily and the Sicilian code of honour is a running motif in the play. The play was made into a film in 1962 (below), and adapted into an opera in 1999 by the composer William Bolcom, who incorporated material from both versions of the play.
The social and historical background of a view from the bridge is represented from Italy in the times of the 1950s, With a Sicilian background. Sicily is the home of all the characters which is
an island in Italy. The characters change from old world Sicily to new world America in the book. Sicily had been invaded a lot of times by different countries, so this made the Sicilian people develop a culture of not talking or reporting to the authority, so the people of Sicily dealt with their own problems between their communities. Sicily was a very poor country.
BY Tugba Melek
