Timebends: A Life

FROM OUR EDITORS

With 22 plays and screenplays and several collections of nonfiction under his belt, Arthur Miller is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Now, for the fist time, is the life story of Miller from his boyhood in Brooklyn to his success as a playwright with such works as "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible." Timebends allows the reader to delve deeper into the soul of a man whose life has been enriched by encounters with a remarkable range of personalities and who has always embodied himself with the utmost integrity and commitment. Read by the author. Approximate running time: 3 hours.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Arthur Miller's plays have held the world's stages for almost half a century. Among them are Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, and others, including the recent Broken Glass, which won England's 1995 Olivier Award for Best Play. His memoir, Timebends, shows that the life of the man is as compelling as his plays. With passion, wit, and candor, Miller recalls his childhood in Harlem and Brooklyn in the 1920s and the Depression; his successes and failures in the theater and in Hollywood; the formation of his political beliefs that, two decades later, brought him into confrontation with the House Committee on Un-American Activities; and his later work on behalf of human rights as the president of PEN International. He writes with astonishing perception and tenderness of Marilyn Monroe, his second wife, as well as the host of famous and infamous that have intersected with his adventurous life. Timebends is Miller's love letter to this century: its energy, its humor, its chaos and moral struggles.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

America's most famous living playwright (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, Incident at Vichy, etc.) here does with his life story what nature does with rock strata, folding it back on itself to achieve the effects of many-layered richness and simultaneity that he aims for in his plays. It's a life as remarkable for its commitment as its achievement. Growing up on the edge of Harlem in the '20s and '30s, the son of a successful but semiliterate coat manufacturer, Miller discovered both his vocation and his leftist political convictions during the Depression and the rise of fascism. He achieved a moral victory against McCarthyism in the '50s; and it was under his presidency that PEN went from an ineffectual literary club to a real force for international freedom of expression. While covering these events, Miller traces the genesis of his plays in his life experience, provides vivid portraits of a host of notables in the worlds of theater, cinema and politics, including Elia Kazan, Lee and Paula Strasberg, John Huston, Clark Gable, Sir Laurence Olivier, John F. Kennedy and Mikhail Gorbachev, and a detailed, deeply touching one of his second wife, Marilyn Monroe, who finally slipped from his reach. Tough, compassionate, bristling with intelligence and profound reflections on the dramas of life and stage, this is one of the memorable autobiographies of our time. Photos. BOMC selection. (November 16)

Library Journal

Renowned playwright Miller has at last written his autobiography in this dense, thoughtful, beautifully written book. With sharp characterizations and vivid imagery, Miller brings his Brooklyn childhood to life. His early struggles and successes in the theater are all here, as well as his skirmishes with the House Un-American Activities Committee and, of course, his much-publicized marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Miller delves deep inside his relationship with Monroe to analyze and intellectualize the problems of their marriage. He sees her as the quintessential orphan, whom no amount of reassurance could make secure. A fascinating, important book for most libraries. Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.

AudioFile - Adeane A. Bregman