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PEN PAYS TRIBUTE TO ARTHUR MILLER
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New York, New York
Tuesday, February 11, 2005
Writers in New York and throughout the world paid tribute today to
Arthur Miller, whose leadership was an essential part of PEN's
emergence as an international force for the protection of freedom of
expression.
Miller was elected president of International PEN at the 1965 PEN
Congress in Bled in the former Yugoslavia, the first Congress to
include a delegation of writers from the Soviet Union, and during his
tenure, the organization became both a truly global body and an
international voice defending imprisoned and persecuted writers. He
presided over the 1966 PEN Congress in New York, an event that brought
literary figures long barred from visiting the United States, including
Pablo Neruda and others, to this country. That Congress is credited by
many with sparking American interest in international writing and
helping to ignite the so-called Boom in Latin American literature.
PEN American Center President Salman Rushdie released the following statement today in New York:
"Arthur Miller was a writer of genius. He made plays with the
grandeur and power of high tragedy, revealing what he called, in
the opening stage directions of Death of a Salesman , the 'dream
rising out of reality.' With the profound resonance of characters
such as Salesman 's Willy Loman, The Crucible 's Abigail Williams or
Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge , these works have strong
claims to immortality.
"He was also a man of true moral stature, a rare quality in these
degraded days. Writing meant, for him, an 'effort to locate in the
human species a counterforce to the randomness of victimization.' He
added, with his characteristic dry humor: 'As history has taught, that
counterforce can only be moral. Unfortunately.'
"In 2001, as Emeritus President of International PEN and Honorary
Chair of PEN American Center, he said: 'When political people
have finished with repression and violence PEN can indeed be
forgotten.... Needless to add, we shall need extraordinarily long lives
to see that noble day.'
"Today at American PEN we mourn his passing. But we also continue to be
inspired by his example, and will strive to meet the standards of
intellectual and personal integrity he embodied for so long. I was
lucky enough to know him a little, to observe how lightly he wore his
greatness, and to see the mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"I comfort myself with the thought that although the man has left us, the work is here to stay."
Rushdie's comments were echoed in London, the headquarters of
International PEN, and around the PEN world, where Miller is remembered
as an invaluable voice for freedom of expression. Time and again he
used his influence on behalf of writers who face persecution, not only
during his tenure as International PEN president but before and after,
when he joined PEN delegations to countries where writers were under
threat and spoke out countless times against violations of the freedom
to write. At times it was Miller's persona alone that saved writers in
danger. In one legendary case, a letter he wrote in 1966 protesting the
imprisonment of playwright and future Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in
Nigeria had an especially powerful effect. As Miller related in a 2001
interview with Charlie Rose:
"There was a civil war in Nigeria and Soyinka was trying to make
peace between the two sides, so he was traveling incognito
between the two armies. One of the armies, the main force,
arrested him and he was going to get shot in two days. They had
him in a cage and a British businessman called me up and
said, 'Could you write a letter to General Gowan?' I said, 'Who
is General Gowan?' He said 'He's the head of the state. If
you wrote him a letter I think he would let him go. If you send
it to me I'm on my way down there now and I'll give it to him.'
"The general got this letter, signed by me, and he said, 'Was he
married to Marilyn Monroe?' The guy said 'yes.' And he said, 'let him
out.'
When Rose asked him later in the interview about the
responsibility of a writer beyond his work, Miller answered, "I
don't like to think of it in terms of responsibility because then
you're telling somebody what they ought to be doing. Rather, it's
an opportunity to affect the freedom of other people."
For further information, contact:
Michael Roberts
Executive Director
PEN American Center
(212) 334-1660, ext. 103
roco@pen.org
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