The Man Who Had All the Luck

By Arthur Miller

A new Penguin Plays edition of the forgotten classic that launched the career of one of America’s greatest playwrights
 
It took more than fifty years for The Man Who Had All the Luck to be appreciated for what it truly is: the first stirrings of a genius that would go on to blossom in such masterpieces as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. This striking new edition finally adds Miller’s first major play to the Penguin Plays series—now in beautifully redesigned covers.
 
Infused with the moral malaise of the Depression era, this parable-like drama centers on David Beeves, a man before whom every obstacle to personal and professional success seems to crumble with ease. But his good fortune merely serves to reveal the tragedies of those around him in greater relief, offering what David believes to be evidence of a capricious god or, worse, a godless, arbitrary universe. David’s journey toward fulfillment becomes a nightmare of existential doubts, a desperate grasp for reason in a cosmos seemingly devoid of any, and a struggle that will take him to the brink of madness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Release date: Jun 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781101992609

Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he began work with the Federal Theatre Project. His first Broadway hit was All My Sons, closely followed by Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. His other writing includes Focus, a novel; The Misfits, first published as a short story, then as a cinema novel; In Russia, In the Country, Chinese Encounters (all in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath) and 'Salesman' in Beijing, non-fiction; and his autobiography, Timebends, published in 1987. Among his other plays are: Incident At Vichy, The Creation of the World and Other Business, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Resurrection Blues. His novella, Plain Girl, was published in 1995 and his second collection of short stories, Presence, in 2007. He died in February 2005 aged eighty-nine.

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Cover for The Man Who Had All the Luck

PENGUIN PLAYS

THE MAN WHO HAD ALL THE LUCK

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall and Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), and The American Clock (1980). His other works include Focus, a novel (1945); The Misfits, a cinema novel (1961); and the texts for In Russia (1969), In the Country (1977), and Chies (1979), three books in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath. His memoirs include Salesman in Beijing (1984) and Timebends, an autobiography (1987). His short fiction includes the collection I Don’t Need You Any More (1967), the novella Homely Girl, A Life (1995), and Presence: Stories (2007). His later work includes the plays The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1994), and Mr. Peters’ Connections (1999); Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays, 1944–2000; and On Politics and the Art of Acting (2001). Among numerous honors, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.

BY ARTHUR MILLER

PLAYS

The Golden Years

The Man Who Had All the Luck

All My Sons

Death of a Salesman

An Enemy of the People

The Crucible

A View from the Bridge

After the Fall

Incident at Vichy

The Price

The Creation of the World and Other Business

The Archbishop’s Ceiling

The American Clock

Playing for Time

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

Broken Glass

Mr. Peters’ Connections

Resurrection Blues

Finishing the Picture

ONE-ACT PLAYS

A View from the Bridge (one-act version)

A Memory of Two Mondays

Fame

The Reason Why

Elegy for a Lady (in Two-Way Mirror)

Some Kind of Love Story (in Two-Way Mirror)

I Can’t Remember Anything (in Danger: Memory!)

Clara (in Danger: Memory!)

The Last Yankee

SCREENPLAYS

Playing for Time

Everybody Wins

The Crucible

The Misfits

MUSICAL

Up from Paradise

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Timebends

REPORTAGE

Situation Normal

In Russia (with Inge Morath)

In the Country (with Inge Morath)

Chinese Encounters (with Inge Morath)

Salesman in Beijing

FICTION

Focus (a novel)

Jane’s Blanket (a children’s story)

The Misfits (a cinema novel)

I Don’t Need You Any More (stories)

Homely Girl, A Life (a novella and stories)

Presence: Stories

COLLECTIONS

Arthur Miller’s Collected Plays, Volumes I and II

The Portable Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Tony Kushner, editor)

Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1964–1982 (Tony Kushner, editor)

Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1987–2004 with Stage and Radio Plays of the 1930s and 40s (Tony Kushner, editor)

ESSAYS

The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller (Robert A. Martin, editor)

Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays, 1944–2000 (Steven R. Centola, editor)

On Politics and the Art of Acting

VIKING CRITICAL LIBRARY EDITIONS

Death of a Salesman (Gerald Weales, editor)

The Crucible (Gerald Weales, editor)

PENGUIN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street

New York, New York 10014

penguin.com

First published in Great Britain in a volume with The Golden Years by Methuen Books 1989

Published in Penguin Books 2004

This edition published in Penguin Books 2016

Copyright © 1989 by Arthur Miller

All rights reserved

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

eBook ISBN 978-1-101-99260-9

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Miller, Arthur, 1915–2005

The man who had all the luck : a drama in three acts / Arthur Miller.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-14-311027-9

1. Alienation (Social psychology)—Drama. 2. Failure (Psychology)—Drama. 3. Success in business—Drama. I. Title.

PS3525.I5156 M36 2004

815'.52—dc22 2003068909

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that performance of The Man Who Had All the Luck is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom and the rest of the British Commonwealth, and of all countries covered by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artist Works, the Pan-American Copyright Conventions, the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including but not limited to professional and amateur stage rights, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, television and radio broadcasting, video and sound recording, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed upon the matter of readings, permission for which must be secured in writing. The amateur stage performance rights in The Man Who Had All the Luck are controlled exclusively by the Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016. No non-professional performance of the play may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of the Dramatists Play Service, Inc., and paying the requisite fee. Inquiries concerning other rights should be addressed to ICM Partners, 730 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10019.

Cover design by Jim Tierney

Version_1

Contents

About the Author

Also by Arthur Miller

Title Page

Copyright

Characters

Synopsis of Scenes

Act One

SCENE I

SCENE II

Act Two

SCENE I

SCENE II

Act Three

SCENE I

SCENE II

Characters

DAVID BEEVES

SHORY

J.B. FELLER

ANDREW FALK

PATTERSON (PAT) BEEVES

AMOS BEEVES

HESTER FALK

DAN DIBBLE

GUSTAV EBERSON

AUGIE BELFAST

AUNT BELLE

SYNOPSIS OF SCENES

THE TIME Not so long ago.

Act One

SCENE I

An evening in early April. Inside a barn used as a repair shop.

SCENE II

The barn, near dawn.

Act Two

SCENE I

June. About three years later. The living room of the Falks’—now David’s—house.

SCENE II

Later that day. The living room.

Act Three

SCENE I

The following February. The living room.

SCENE II

One month later. The living room at evening.

Act One

SCENE I

A barn in a small, midwestern town. It is set on a rake angle. The back wall of the barn sweeps toward upstage and right, and the big entrance doors are in this wall. Along the left wall a work bench on which auto tools lie along with some old parts and rags and general mechanic’s junk. A rack over the bench holds wrenches, screwdrivers, other tools. In the left wall is a normal-sized door leading into Shory’s Feed and Grain Store to which this barn is attached. A step-high ramp leads down from the threshold of this door into the barn. Further to the left, extending into the offstage area along the wall, are piles of cement bags. In front of them several new barrels that contain fertilizer.

Downstage, near the center, is a small wood stove, now glowing red. Over the bench is a hanging bulb. There is a big garage jack on the floor, several old nail barrels for chairs—two of them by the stove. A large drum of alcohol lies on blocks, downstage right. Near it are scattered a few gallon tins. This is an old barn being used partly as a storage place, and mainly as an auto repair shop. The timber supports have a warm, oak color, unstained. The colors of wood dominate the scene, and the gray of the cement bags.

Before the rise, two car horns, one of them the old-fashioned ga-goo-ga type of the old Ford, are heard honking impatiently. An instant of this and the curtain rises.

David Beeves is filling a can from an alcohol drum. He is twenty-two. He has the earnest manner of the young, small-town businessman until he forgets it, which is most of the time. Then he becomes what he is—wondrous, funny, naïve, and always searching. He wears a windbreaker.

Enter J.B. Feller from the right. He is a fat man near fifty, dressed for winter. A certain delicacy of