Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist . He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include awards-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible . Arthur Miller was the second of three children of Isidore and Augusta Miller, Polish-Jewish immigrants . His father, an illiterate but wealthy businessman, owned a women's clothing store employing 400 people . The family, including his younger sister Joan, lived on East 110th Street in Manhattan and owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens . They employed a chauffeur . In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn . As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family make ends meet . After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked as a reporter and night editor for the student paper, the Michigan Daily. It was during this time that he wrote his first work, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. He was mentored by Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award. .