The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts

Author(s): Arthur Miller

Poetry and Plays

"The Crucible" is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended. It was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold and the reviews for it were largely hostile (although The New York Times noted "a powerful play in a driving performance"). Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 "Best Play" Tony Award. A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. It is a central work in the canon of American drama.Fuji Books' edition of "The Crucible" contains supplementary texts:* "Tragedy And The Common Man", an essay by Arthur Miller.* Excerpts from Nathaniel Hawthorne's magnus opus "The Scarlet Letter", a narrative of the Salem Witch trials.* A few selected quotes of Arthur Miller.


Product Information

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1963), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972) and The American Clock. He has also written two novels, Focus (1945), and The Misfits, which was filmed in 1960, and the text for In Russia (1969), Chinese Encounters (1979), and In the Country (1977), three books of photographs by his wife, Inge Morath. His most recent works include a memoir, Timebends (1987), and the plays The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1993), which won the Olivier Award for Best Play of the London Season, and Mr. Peter's Connections (1998). He has twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and in 1949 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

General Fields

  • : 9780141182551
  • : Penguin UK
  • : Penguin
  • : 0.11
  • : September 2015
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 7mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Arthur Miller
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 812/.52
  • : 144
  • : DD