Death of a Salesman: History and Key Facts

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy—the subtitle of the play is "Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem"—set in late 1940s Brooklyn and told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a traveling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Since its premiere, the play has been revived on Broadway five times, winning a to-this-day unprecedented four Tony Awards for Best Revival. It has been adapted for the cinema ten times. In 1999, New Yorker drama critic John Lahr said that with 11 million copies sold, it was "probably the most successful modern play ever published."

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