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The Arthur Miller Tapes: A Life In His Own Words
350 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 30, 2026
Years ago in college, during a discussion with an extraordinary communications professor, he mentioned a play by Shakespeare. I told him that Shakespeare’s work really didn’t interest me. When I thought of a great playwright, I thought of Arthur Miller. It was his plays that I thought were most thought provoking. It has been years since I saw or read a play by Mr. Miller and wondered if this book would keep my interest. Fortunately, it did.
The main reason it did was because Arthur Miller is very good at telling pertinent stories, as well as teaching history lessons. He brings the Great Depression to life in his answers to questions by Mr. Bigsby. The same with WWII and the years following that war, and why some intellectuals were so enthralled by Communism and Russia; plus how the McCarthy hearings affected writers and actors and many others involved in the creative arts. As a born Jew, the Jewish faith and the Holocaust, too, repeatedly comes up. In addition, there were interesting conversations about what it was like to write radio documentaries, before there was television.
Of course, there were also continuous conversations about playwriting and the theatre in the US and other countries. How it was from when Mr. Miller started in the 1940s and how it was up to the late 1990s. He saw the American theatre as going from a form of entertainment and education for the masses, to being something that had become way too expensive for the masses to afford. Only those with money can afford to see a play in places like New York City. He expressed regret, too, that he wasn’t associated with just one theatre where he could have had more opportunities to get plays produced, and thus would have written more plays.
His personal life? There is some discussion about his childhood and college years. Moreover, for the first time ever, I read about his first wife, instead of only hearing about his second and third. His first wife, Mary Grace Slattery, was a highly intelligent Catholic he dated in college, married and had two children with, a son and daughter. What led to divorce? According to Mr. Miller, she would never change her views on any topic but rigidly clung to them. His failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe? She would not give up playing victim, as was implied in his play After the Fall. His third marriage to photographer Inge Morath produced a daughter Rebecca and a son Daniel.
I had never heard of Daniel. Turned out he was born with Down’s syndrome and was immediately institutionalized. I discovered a damning article in the Vanity Fair archives that painted Arthur Miller as a totally uncaring father to his second son, wanted nothing to do with him, never saw him unless pressured to do so, and simply didn’t care. This is not the exact type of picture painted in Rebecca Miller’s HBO documentary Arthur Miller: Writer, where it was apparently suggested that her father simply could not be close to Daniel because it would break his heart to do so.
What does he say about Daniel in this book? Mr. Miller speaks warmly of him, as if he knew him well; and says he had a cousin with a similar disability and saw what a miserable life he had; since he was so unlike other children and could not compete with them. Hence, when doctors suggested his boy would be best living and interacting with his own kind, his father agreed. According the Vanity Fair article, Daniel never lived with his parents, even after it was decided when he was 17, he could live in an apartment on his own with a weekly visit from a social worker. It’s hard not to wonder if Mr. Miller possibly believed he would never ever be able to relate to a child of his own who would never fully develop intellectually.
That’s what stands out so much when reading Arthur Miller’s replies in this book. His intelligence and insightfulness. He demonstrates how playwrights and novelists often far better understand human behavior and thought than psychiatrists or psychologists. Yet he so obviously failed at times to understand his own feelings and actions. There is an old proverb that says when an elder dies, a library burns to the ground. Fortunately, in Arthur Miller’s case, not all his words and writings were destroyed. They still thankfully exist in many places in the existing world and might exist forever. Maybe not seen by most as important as Shakespeare’s writings, but I personally prefer the words Arthur Miller left behind.
(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the author or publisher.)
The main reason it did was because Arthur Miller is very good at telling pertinent stories, as well as teaching history lessons. He brings the Great Depression to life in his answers to questions by Mr. Bigsby. The same with WWII and the years following that war, and why some intellectuals were so enthralled by Communism and Russia; plus how the McCarthy hearings affected writers and actors and many others involved in the creative arts. As a born Jew, the Jewish faith and the Holocaust, too, repeatedly comes up. In addition, there were interesting conversations about what it was like to write radio documentaries, before there was television.
Of course, there were also continuous conversations about playwriting and the theatre in the US and other countries. How it was from when Mr. Miller started in the 1940s and how it was up to the late 1990s. He saw the American theatre as going from a form of entertainment and education for the masses, to being something that had become way too expensive for the masses to afford. Only those with money can afford to see a play in places like New York City. He expressed regret, too, that he wasn’t associated with just one theatre where he could have had more opportunities to get plays produced, and thus would have written more plays.
His personal life? There is some discussion about his childhood and college years. Moreover, for the first time ever, I read about his first wife, instead of only hearing about his second and third. His first wife, Mary Grace Slattery, was a highly intelligent Catholic he dated in college, married and had two children with, a son and daughter. What led to divorce? According to Mr. Miller, she would never change her views on any topic but rigidly clung to them. His failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe? She would not give up playing victim, as was implied in his play After the Fall. His third marriage to photographer Inge Morath produced a daughter Rebecca and a son Daniel.
I had never heard of Daniel. Turned out he was born with Down’s syndrome and was immediately institutionalized. I discovered a damning article in the Vanity Fair archives that painted Arthur Miller as a totally uncaring father to his second son, wanted nothing to do with him, never saw him unless pressured to do so, and simply didn’t care. This is not the exact type of picture painted in Rebecca Miller’s HBO documentary Arthur Miller: Writer, where it was apparently suggested that her father simply could not be close to Daniel because it would break his heart to do so.
What does he say about Daniel in this book? Mr. Miller speaks warmly of him, as if he knew him well; and says he had a cousin with a similar disability and saw what a miserable life he had; since he was so unlike other children and could not compete with them. Hence, when doctors suggested his boy would be best living and interacting with his own kind, his father agreed. According the Vanity Fair article, Daniel never lived with his parents, even after it was decided when he was 17, he could live in an apartment on his own with a weekly visit from a social worker. It’s hard not to wonder if Mr. Miller possibly believed he would never ever be able to relate to a child of his own who would never fully develop intellectually.
That’s what stands out so much when reading Arthur Miller’s replies in this book. His intelligence and insightfulness. He demonstrates how playwrights and novelists often far better understand human behavior and thought than psychiatrists or psychologists. Yet he so obviously failed at times to understand his own feelings and actions. There is an old proverb that says when an elder dies, a library burns to the ground. Fortunately, in Arthur Miller’s case, not all his words and writings were destroyed. They still thankfully exist in many places in the existing world and might exist forever. Maybe not seen by most as important as Shakespeare’s writings, but I personally prefer the words Arthur Miller left behind.
(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the author or publisher.)
May 26, 2026
This is not a conventional biography, but draws from decades of recorded conversations where Arthur Miller speaks for himself, candidly, and thoughtfully. The author was a long-time friend, scholar, and biographer of Miller and is thus uniquely positioned to guide these conversations. His questions are informed and probing, yet allow Miller’s voice to dominate. The result is an intimate, almost unmediated portrait. The book is rich in personal revelation. Miller speaks with frankness about his relationships, including his famously complex marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Bigsby largely allows Miller to steer the conversation, and although difficult subjects are raised they are not always pressed. Stylistically, however, the book is consistently engaging. Miller is a compelling speaker, reflective and articulate, There is a sense of being in the room with him, listening as he pieces together the meaning of his life and work in real time. That immediacy is the book’s greatest strength. It transforms what might have been archival material into something vivid and present. It captures a major writer thinking aloud about art, politics, love, and failure without the tidy conclusions that biography often imposes. For readers interested in Miller and his life and work, in theatre and intellectual history, it makes for compelling reading.
June 20, 2026
These interviews were conducted by a longtime friend of Arthur Miller and not only wrote a biography of him, but also edited a couple of his plays for Penguin Classics. Because of this relationship, the conversations feel deeply personal and intimate and nothing seemed off limits (such as his marriage to Marilyn Monroe and the institutionalization of his disabled son). I appreciate hearing directly from his voice about his childhood, his career ups and downs, themes behind his plays, and his personal relationships.. This is a compelling read and gave me a deeper understanding of the man and playwright.
Thank you to Netgalley and Cambridge University Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Cambridge University Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
June 20, 2026
A Fascinating Glimpse into the Psyche of a Genius
This book is worth reading if you have an interest in what makes a writer tick, and especially a writer of plays. This is the first book I have ever read that, with an exception of the biographical timeline in the preface, is strictly the words of the author on tape. The words are spontaneous, unvarnished, unedited. It’s a clever way to present a genius. I am so interested now in seeing The Death of the Salesman and The Crucible, Playing for Time, and The View from the Bridge, and other plays written by Arthur Miller.
This book is worth reading if you have an interest in what makes a writer tick, and especially a writer of plays. This is the first book I have ever read that, with an exception of the biographical timeline in the preface, is strictly the words of the author on tape. The words are spontaneous, unvarnished, unedited. It’s a clever way to present a genius. I am so interested now in seeing The Death of the Salesman and The Crucible, Playing for Time, and The View from the Bridge, and other plays written by Arthur Miller.
July 1, 2026
As an Arthur Miller fan, I enjoyed this book immensely. It is a transcription of late in life conversations had with his biographer. It filled in many of the blanks I had in my knowledge of Arthur Miller's life and writings.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews