Death As A Salesman

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream A Penguin Classic Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Christopher W. E. Bigsby. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room. "By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." —Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times "So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." —Time

Examines the individual author's entire body of work and on his/her single works of literature.

"This collection of social, cultural, and historical documents and popular materials, with linking explanations and commentary, will help the reader to study the play in context of its time and cultural background. The collected materials are designed to work with the play to highlight inherent conflicts within American society which lie at the heart of 'Death of a Salesman, ' and to explore how the play affects and is affected by social mores and beliefs. Salesmanship and the changing face of business, along with perceptions of sports, gender, and families, are explored through selections drawn from a rich variety of sources that provide forceful evidence of the play's influence. Documents include essays, articles, and fiction, which have created or explored the social expectations of a typical American family in the late 1940s; unusual selections such as a self-analysis chart, an obituary, and a diary, which help to trace the history of salesmanship from the nineteenth century to the present day; and advertisements, song lyrics, speeches, how-to books, and other readings that promote an interdisciplinary study of the play." "The material is organized to offer five views of the play and to analyze its impact on American culture in terms of 'Cultural Myths and values, ' 'Economic Interests and Forces, ' 'American Business Culture, ' 'Family and Gender Expectations, ' and 'Sports and American Life.' Each chapter concludes with a list of 'Study Questions, '; 'Topics for Written or Oral Exploration'; and 'Suggested Readings, ' which are expecially useful for teachers." SLJ.

Part 1, "Materials," surveys editions, anthologies, and a large selection of published works on Miller. Part 2, "Approaches," has fourteen concise, helpful essays by experienced instructors focusing on stage directions and scenery; comparing Willy Loman with salesmen in plays by O'Neill and Mamet; and reading the play from psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, sociological, and feminist perspectives.

On a brutally hot summer morning in Charlotte, North Carolina, Big Al Washington-a local legend for car sales and eccentric commercials-dies under mysterious circumstances. As the vultures line up for their fair share of his fortune, Big Al's trusted attorney, Larry Bridges, informs the Washington kin that the estate will be frozen until the case is solved. Weary of probing police detectives and avaricious beneficiaries, Larry enlists his savvy daughter, Emily, and Alice Washington-Big Al's estranged daughter and the only family member with a legitimate alibi-to figure out who killed his former boss. Meanwhile, Big Al's grandson and successor Luke, in serious need of cash flow, hatches his own plans to speed up the dispersion process. He sees it as his mission to save the dealership and will fulfill it at any cost. When everyone in the Washington family's inner circle has a potential motive, how will Emily and Alice narrow it down? Or is Big Al's legacy already doomed, as autonomous cars overtake the market and drive his lifelong business into the ground?