For some fifty years now, Arthur Miller has been not only America's premier playwright, but also one of our foremost public intellectuals and cultural critics. Echoes Down the Corridor gathers together a dazzling array of more than forty previously uncollected essays and works of reportage. Here is Arthur Miller, the brilliant social and political commentator-but here, too, Miller the private man behind the internationally renowned public figure.Witty and wise, rich in artistry and insight, Echoes Down the Corridor reaffirms Arthur Miller's standing as one of the greatest writers of our time.

A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft—and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village. First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch-hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can. "A drama of emotional power and impact" —New York Post

The second volume in the definitive biography of the acclaimed playwright

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.

Arthur Miller is described by some as the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century. But to fully understand and appreciate his work, students must comprehend the political climate in which he was writing and the changes facing the world at the time. This engaging text provides readers with critical analysis of his themes, style, and language; direct quotations from Miller; and relevant biographical details. Students will learn about the world Arthur Miller was reflecting in his writing and why his works have become American classics.

"Being a Compendium of Fallibility, a Bestiary of Artistic Fears & Foibles, and an unhelpful Travel Guide to the City of Lost Intentions, with particular notice paid to its denizens—the transmogrified souls of self-damned artists—for the benefit of the prospective resident as they negotiate the underworld metropolis in the dubious company of Montcorbier, a disaffected psychopomp." A baroque phantasmagoria of an imaginary hell, passing through its theatres, gilded grottoes, and stagnant, underground seas, from the Temple of Fo-Elpmet-Eht to the Hoarse Latitudes, with each chapter devoted to a different crime against the artist's Heart. Presenting as a collection of 151 vignettes of the infernal citizens, linked by the erratic actions of the guide, Montcorbier, and the increasingly despairing and cryptic interjections of an unknown narrator who derails the careful catalogue of the city’s populace with complaints about the mysterious and despised Architect. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with actors, painters, writers, directors, musicians, cabaret performers, glassblowers, fashion designers, photographers, philosophers, stand-up comics, and indeed anyone of a creative bent, over nine countries and ten years, concerning ways in which the artist might betray their art, The City of Lost Intentions is a tragicomical fairy tale of the tyranny of “the Vision”. A book for all waylaid artists and self-saboteurs. REVIEWS: “Valliard proffers a rare and valuable curiosity, a wunderkammer of creative impediments, blockages, cul-de-sacs and subconscious stopcocks. The City of Lost Intentions stylishly fills a lacuna you never even knew existed. This would have been a classic 200 years ago, and will still have currency 200 years hence. Elegant and erudite, whimsical and wondrous, handsomely produced, if you cannot find yourself within this bestiary you need to work harder.” ~ Michael Winkler (author of Grimmish) "A funny, bleak, brutal, Dante-style guide to a posthumous world of artistic failures." ~ James Morrison (author of Gibbons, or One Bloody Thing After Another) “Sublimely weird and brilliant.” ~ Louis Barabbas (composer & lyricist, Coraline: A Musical)