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Arthur Miller
By Christopher Bigsby
Orion Books £30
739 pages
Dateline: 21st December, 2008
Despite the fact that he has already written a stream of books about
Arthur Miller, you would think that Christopher Bigsby's magisterial
biography must surely be the last word on the playwright's life and
work. Weighing in (and those are the right words) at almost 750 closely
worded pages, it allows the author to explore almost every aspect of
his subject.
However, despite being an alternative to weights for the fitness minded,
this book covers little more than half of the great playwright's life.
It pretty much stops following his divorce from Marilyn Monroe and the
release of the film that they stormily worked on together, The Misfits.
Therefore, while this is a must-read for anyone seriously interested
in Twentieth Century theatre and particularly Miller's life and work,
it should be read as a complement to Bigsby' other works on and about
his favourite subject, as well as Martin Gottfried's biography
published only about four years ago and Miller's own version of his
life covering the period to its publication in1989, Timebends.
As a start, the Professor of American Studies at the University of
East Anglia pays particular attention to the early years, which not
only formed the man but also provided so much material for his playwriting.
Rather than merely going back to the time of Miller's birth, his biographer
traces back a further two generations to the village in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire where both sets of grandparents were born.
From there, we read of journeys to the promised land of America and
business acumen that made the Miller's rich, at least until the great
Depression when everything disappeared and they were forced from the
luxury of Harlem to the cramped tenements of Brooklyn.
Again and again, stories from the lives of the Millers and their relations
during these early years can be seen as sources for a talented younger
son whose opportunity to go to university was effectively bought at
the cost of his elder brother Kermit's education.
In these sections, and then as he analyses the life, the author goes
into remarkable detail based on years of research, to come to conclusions
about the life of a man who at his best was perhaps the greatest American
playwright of the last fifty years, or possibly ever.
He has clearly gained access to vast numbers of the major players in
this story but also lengthy FBI files used in a failed attempt to prove
that his subject was a Communist, and Miller's own archive of writings.
Indeed, as well as analysing the plays, films and books that have seen
the light of day, Christopher Bigsby also takes considerable trouble
to make use of unpublished work that adds authenticity to the portrait.
By the end, you almost wonder whether Bigsby understands Miller better
than he knew himself.
To most readers with an interest in theatre, the highlights are likely
to be the tales about the writing and production of the great works,
Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and All My Sons,
and the writer does us proud.
For others, the most popular pages will be those already used in extracts
in the papers and on Radio Four relating to Miller's second marriage,
to the most famous actress of her day, the beautiful but innately troubled
and troublesome Marilyn Monroe.
The area where the Professor goes way overboard is in relation to Miller's
political interests. In many ways, he might have been better off extracting
around 300 pages from this tome and publishing a separate book entitled
"Arthur Miller - the Politics".
This would contain all of the painstaking analysis of Miller's thoughts
on the subject both published and otherwise as well as the views of
anyone else with any kind of an interest. It would also hold pages of
background about Senator McCarthy's neurotic witch hunt that, while
fascinating to this reader, might arguably be seen as excessive in a
personal biography. These all lead up to a climax with the attempts
of the House Un-American Activities Committee to send Miller to jail.
Where others such as Elia Kazan, a director with whom Miller worked
closely in the early days, saved themselves by naming names, he proved
a hero by his willingness to risk freedom and career in order to uphold
a very personal sense of honour.
It seems hard to believe that anybody else could write a more detailed
biography of the first fifty or so years of Arthur Miller's life and
we must presumably expect that Professor Bigsby is already hard at work
on the second volume. The only problem that he might find is that this
period has less glamour, less good writing and a long period where its
subject was hardly loved in his home country, in part at least, because
of his political views.
Even so, as soon as soon as that book is published, if it ever is,
this reviewer will be building up his strength to lift it off the bookshelves
and complete the story.
Philip Fisher
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