Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays, 1944-1999

The distinguished playwright's personal dignity and decency resonate throughout this low-key but affecting collection. Best known as the author of such modern classics as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Miller has always been intensely engaged in the political and social issues of his day, not just in America but around the world. The 50 essays collected here range from atmospheric reminiscences of his childhood in Brooklyn and studies at the University of Michigan, to accounts of visits to China, the Soviet Union and Turkey as an advocate for victims of governmental persecution. Deeply influenced by the radical culture of the 1930s and by his youth during the depression, Miller has always been firmly on the political left; there are several references to his brush with McCarthyism in the 1950s, and ""The Battle of Chicago"" recounts his experiences as an anti-Vietnam War delegate at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Yet he has never succumbed to utopian notions of human and political perfectibility. The existence of evil is a given, and the collection is haunted by the Holocaust, particularly the question of how much guilt the Germans as a nation must bear and how much can be attributed to passivity in the face of power and to the indifference to others' sufferings of which we all are capable. Dismay at many manifestations of modern capitalist culture jostle a bedrock commitment to free speech in this autumnal work (more than half the pieces appeared when Miller was over 50). Editor Centola does not consistently provide dates for the essays or identify the publications in which they appeared. Nonetheless, this is a welcome companion volume to Miller's Theater Essays, illuminating the fundamental beliefs that underpin his activism as well as his art. (Oct.)