WILLY LOMAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Miller, Arthur (1915–2005)

Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem [1949 Book-of-the-Month Club Issue — Second Printing Before Publication]

New York: The Viking Press, 1949.
AN EARLY 1949 ISSUE OF MILLER'S LANDMARK AMERICAN PLAY.
Published in the year of its Broadway premiere and retaining Jo Mielziner's striking original stage-design imagery on both the binding and endpapers.

The cast page records the original Broadway production staged by Elia Kazan, with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: THE ORIGINAL MIELZINER DESIGN.
+++ Publisher's orange cloth with Jo Mielziner's stage design stamped in dark brown on the front board and lettering to the spine. Octavo, approximately 8 inches tall; [11]–139 pages. 
+++ Illustrated endpapers reproduce Mielziner's drawing for the original stage setting. The cast page identifies Elia Kazan as director, Mielziner as designer of setting and lighting, Alex North as composer of incidental music, and Julia Sze as costume designer. The original production opened at New York's Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949.
+++ Copyright page states “Second Printing Before Publication” with the letter “W.”

CONDITION: NEAR FINE. A notably bright, clean copy. Orange cloth remains vivid with the pictorial cover design sharp; minor shelf wear and light rubbing at extremities. Binding firm and square. Interior clean and well preserved. Illustrated endpapers remain strong. Lacks the dust jacket.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: AN AMERICAN DRAMA THAT REDEFINED THE TRAGIC HERO.
Death of a Salesman became one of the defining works of postwar American drama, transforming the aspirations and failures of ordinary salesman Willy Loman into a critique of success, family expectations, and the American Dream.

The original Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman and used Jo Mielziner's innovative stage design, reproduced in this edition. The play won both the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play and remains central to twentieth-century American theater.

SUBJECTS: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, American Theater, Broadway, American Dream, Postwar America, Elia Kazan, Jo Mielziner, Lee J. Cobb, Twentieth-Century American Literature, Drama, American Drama, Modern Literature, Theater, Tragedy.

Item #22501

Price: $35.00