Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.Willy Loman is an ageing travelling salesman haunted, driven and yet held back by empty dreams of prosperity and success. Justly celebrated as one of the most famous dramatisations of the failure of the American Dream, the play's moral and political purpose is perfectly counterbalanced by a powerful and moving human drama of a man trying to make his way in the world and of the human flaws that lead to the shattering of his family and of their figurehead.Death of a Salesman is Miller's tragic masterpiece and considered one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949, the play remains a classic work of literature and drama that is studied and performed around the world.This new edition includes an introduction by Claire Conceison that explores the play's production history as well as the dramatic, thematic, and academic debates that surround it a must-have resource for any student exploring Death of a Salesman.

Death of a Salesman is Arthur Miller's tragic masterpiece about a travelling salesman whose professional identity and thereby entire sense of self is in crisis. This Methuen Drama Student Edition features commentary and notes by Claire Conceison.

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he began work with the Federal Theatre Project. His first Broadway hit was All My Sons, closely followed by Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. His other writing includes Focus, a novel The Misfits, first published as a short story, then as a cinema novel In Russia, In the Country, Chinese Encounters (all in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath) and 'Salesman' in Beijing, non-fiction and his autobiography, Timebends, published in 1987. Among his other plays are: Incident At Vichy, The Creation of the World and Other Business, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Resurrection Blues. His novella, Plain Girl, was published in 1995 and his second collection of short stories, Presence, in 2007. He died in February 2005 aged eighty-nine.Claire Conceison is Quanta Professor of Chinese Culture and Professor of Theater Arts at MIT. She is a scholar, translator, and director. Her publications include the books Significant Other: Staging the American in China (2004) Ying Ruocheng's autobiography Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform (2009) the anthology I Love XXX and Other Plays by Meng Jinghui (2017) and the introduction to 'Death of a Salesman' in Beijing (2015), a new edition of Arthur Miller's 1984 book 'Salesman' in Beijing. She is a contributor to the volume Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century (2020).Claire Conceison is Quanta Professor of Chinese Culture and Professor of Theater Arts at MIT. She is a scholar, translator, and director. Her publications include the books Significant Other: Staging the American in China (2004) Ying Ruocheng's autobiography Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform (2009) the anthology I Love XXX and Other Plays by Meng Jinghui (2017) and the introduction to 'Death of a Salesman' in Beijing (2015), a new edition of Arthur Miller's 1984 book 'Salesman' in Beijing. She is a contributor to the volume Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century (2020).Susan Abbotson is Professor of English at Rhode Island College, where she mostly teaches drama. She is the author of Student Companion to Arthur Miller (2000) and A Critical Companion to Arthur Miller (2007) and numerous articles on Arthur Miller and other modern and contemporary playwrights. Past President of the Arthur Miller Society, she now manages their website and FaceBook page, and is the Performance Editor for the Arthur Miller Journal. She also authored Thematic Guide to Modern Drama (2003), Masterpieces of Twentieth Century American Drama (2005), and Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1950s (2019). She has published articles on Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Mae West, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, August Wilson, Eugene O'Neill, Lillian Hellman, and Paula Vogel in a variety of books and journals.