Arthur Miller by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times. In 1949, Miller exchanged letters with Eugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production of "All My Sons". O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that
Death of a Salesman and it is undoubtedly the best American play since "A Streetcar Named Desire".” The play reached London on July 28, 1949. London responses were mixed, but mostly favorable. "The Times" criticized it, saying that “the strongest play of New York theatrical season should be transferred to London in the deadest week of the year.” However, the public understanding of the ideology of the play was different from that in America. Some people, such as Eric Keown, think of "Death of a Salesman" as "a potential tragedy deflected from its true course by Marxist sympathies." The play was hailed as “the