'I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history,' Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's 'witch-hunts' in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing 'Political opposition...is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.'

The Viking Critical Library edition of Arthur Miller's dramatic recreation of the Salem witch trials contains the complete text of The Crucible as well as extensive critical and contextual material about the play and the playwright, including:

• Selections from Miller's writings on his most frequently performed play
• Essays on the historical background of The Crucible, including personal narratives by participants in the trials and records of witchcraft in Salem from the original documents
• Reviews of The Crucible, in production by Brooks Atkinson, Walter Kerr, Eric Bentley, and others
• Excerpts from Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Sorcières de Salem, a 'spin-off' of Miller's play, and three analogous works by Twain, Shaw, and Budd Schulberg
• Critical essays on the play, on Miller, and on the play in the context of Miller's oeuvre
• An introduction by the editor, a chronology, a list of topics for discussion and papers prepared by Malcolm Cowley, and a bibliography

Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much.

Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. This Viking Critical Library edition of Death of a Salesman contains the complete text of the play, typescript facsimiles, and extensive critical and contextual material including:

• Conflicting reviews about its opening night by Robert Garland, Harold Clurman, Eleanor Clark, and others
• Five articles by Miller on his play, including 'Tragedy and the Common Man' and his 'Introduction to Collected Plays'
• Critical essays by John Gassner, Ivor Brown, Joseph A. Hynes, and others
• General essays on Miller by William Weigand, Allan Seager, and others
• Analogous works by Eudora Welty, Walter D. Moody, Tennessee Williams, and Irwin Shaw
• The stage designer's account, presented in selections from Designing for the Theatre by Jo Mielziner
• An in-depth introduction by the editor, a chronology, a list of topics for discussion and papers, and a bibliography