Arthur Miller interview with Ron Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regarded "All My Sons" as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews from Brooks Atkinson of "The New York Times" had saved it from failure. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of "Death of a Salesman". Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. "Death of a Salesman" premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theatre, directed
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