posted
I can't believe I'm hawking a Vanity Fair article (which is also too long to cut and paste into email -- grrr.). But the September issue of the magazine has a really well-done story about the son that Arthur Miller (almost literally) wrote out of his life. This was not a "secret" in the circles I travel in, but still a surprise to most of the public. And it's a portrayal I needed to read - Miller is less a villain than a tragic figure. And luckily, his son has thrived in spite of the abandonment by the father.
The last part, of course, makes it easier for me to summon some feeling of sympathy for Miller. Not all inmates at this institution were as lucky as Daniel Miller.
quote:Arthur Miller's Missing Act For all the public drama of Arthur Miller's career—his celebrated plays (including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, his social activism—one character was absent: the Down-syndrome child he deleted from his life.
by Suzanna Andrews September 2007
No photograph of him has ever been published, but those who know Daniel Miller say that he resembles his father. Some say it's the nose, others the mischievous glimmer in the eyes when he smiles, but the most telling feature, the one that clearly identifies him as Arthur Miller's son, is his high forehead and identically receding hairline. He is almost 41 now, but it's impossible to say whether his father's friends would notice the resemblance, because the few who have ever seen Daniel have not laid eyes on him since he was a week old. When his father died, in February 2005, he was not at the funeral that took place near Arthur Miller's home, in Roxbury, Connecticut. Nor was he at the public memorial service that May, at Broadway's Majestic Theatre, where hundreds of admirers gathered to pay homage to his father, who was, if not the greatest American playwright of the last century, then certainly the most famous. In the days after his death, at the age of 89, Arthur Miller was eulogized around the world. Newspaper obituaries and television commentators hailed his work—including those keystones of the American canon Death of a Salesman and The Crucible—and recalled his many moments in the public eye: his marriage to Marilyn Monroe; his courageous refusal, in 1956, to "name names" before the House Un-American Activities Committee; his eloquent and active opposition to the Vietnam War; his work, as the international president of pen, on behalf of oppressed writers around the world. The Denver Post called him "the moralist of the past American century," and The New York Times extolled his "fierce belief in man's responsibility to his fellow man—and [in] the self-destruction that followed on his betrayal of that responsibility."
In a moving speech at the Majestic, the playwright Tony Kushner said Miller had possessed the "curse of empathy." Edward Albee said that Miller had held up a mirror and told society, "Here is how you behave." Among the many other speakers were Miller's sister, the actress Joan Copeland, his son the producer Robert Miller, his daughter the writer and film director Rebecca Miller, and her husband, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Miller's oldest child, Jane Doyle, was in the audience but did not speak.
Only a handful of people in the theater knew that Miller had a fourth child. Those who did said nothing, out of respect for his wishes, because, for nearly four decades, Miller had never publicly acknowledged the existence of Daniel.
posted
Quite an interesting article, it's a pity we will never know what Arthur thought about all this in detail, but then again I suppose it's none of our business.
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I know two of the people quoted in the story, but hadn't heard anything about this story itself.
The level of denial and the amount of cooperation it took is staggering. In the article, it mentions meeting his son - finally - when giving a speech about Richard Lapointe. Richard Lapointe is a man who is currently jailed on a murder conviction - he has cognitive disabilities. Everyone working on the Lapointe conviction is involved in the disability community and would have known of his abandonment of his own son. I cannot imagine the emotional acrobatics it took for some people to work with Miller on this knowing what they did about him.
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: I'm glad that Daniel seems to be happy.
A very saddening article.
I agree.
I think it's really great what he has done with his life and the circumstances he was given, despite the neglect and abuse he suffered. It is so interesting to me that my friends with Down Syndrome are some of the most loving, forgiving, open, honest, joyful people I know. Some of them had good childhoods, some did not. But they are all capable of emotional feats that I cannot comprehend. Sometimes it seems that some of my friends with Down Syndrome miss out on some things in this life, but gain others and I am not sure but that it is a fair trade.
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Before this thread vanishes into oblivion, a few of my favorite quotes:
quote:The author Donald Connery, who worked with Miller on the Peter Reilly wrongful-conviction case in the 1970s, says, "I speak with great affection for Arthur, and with admiration for all the good things he did in his life," but whatever led him to institutionalize Daniel "doesn't excuse painting his child out of his life."
"Arthur was detached, that's how he protected himself," says Copeland. "It was as though he thought if he didn't speak about it, it would go away."
quote: Bowen recalls the first time she met Daniel: "He was just a delight, eager, happy, outgoing—in those days even more so than now, because of his isolation." He showed her his room, which he shared with 20 other people, and his dresser, which was nearly empty, because everyone wore communal clothing. "I remember very clearly trying to respond with happiness, but it was very hard, because there was nothing there," she says. "He really had nothing. His sole possession was this little tiny transistor radio with earplugs. It was something you'd pick up at a five-and-dime. And he was so proud to have it.
quote:Some wonder why Arthur Miller, with all his wealth, waited until death to share it with his son. Had he done so sooner, Daniel could have afforded private care and a good education. But those who know Daniel say that this is not how he would feel. "He doesn't have a bitter bone in his body," says Bowen. The important part of the story, she says, is that Danny transcended his father's failures: "He's made a life for himself; he is deeply valued and very, very loved. What a loss for Arthur Miller that he couldn't see how extraordinary his son is." It was a loss that Arthur Miller may have understood better than he let on. "A character," he wrote in Timebends, "is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse."
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I thought I'd share this piece - written by friend and colleague Michael Bailey. It was originally sent as an email but was posted on a web magazine that published some of my stuff as well.
It gives you an idea of the partial picture that existed in the disability advocacy community:
When the celebrated American playwright Arthur Miller died last week he left behind a body of thought-provoking work. In an outpouring of tributes, Miller has been eulogized as a genius, a prophet and a champion of the weak. The syndicated columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. wrote that "Miller's understanding of human frailty created one of the great ethical imperatives of his work: the demand that respect be offered to other human beings despite their shortcomings."
Overlooked in all the tributes (an exception being the obituary that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, February 13) is the fact that in 1962 Miller and his wife Inge Morath had a son named Daniel. Daniel was born with Down syndrome and was immediately removed from his family and "placed" in the Southbery Training School in Connecticut. Miller seldom or never visited his son and did not mention him in his autobiography or ever acknowledge him in any way.
Marcie Roth, now Executive Director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, worked at Southbery as a volunteer in high school. Roth remembers Danny Miller. "He was a sweet and funny kid," she recalls. "Everyone knew he was Arthur Miller's kid, though his dad rarely visited."
As far as I can find out Dan Miller may still be in the Connecticut institution. A place Roth describes as a "snakepit. Still is."
Arthur Miller abandoned his son as an infant and by so doing deprived Daniel of all trappings of normal life.
I admire Arthur Miller. Human beings are, indeed, complex. As the father of a teenager with Down syndrome I feel profound sadness, not only for the child, but for Miller as well. When Miller wrote "All My Sons" it is a shame that he did not, truly, include all of his sons. The genetic addition of one chromosome in his child was apparently one "shortcoming" that Miller, in spite of his genius, could not abide.
Tragic for Daniel Miller.
Tragic for Arthur Miller.
Posted January 28, 2005
Writer Michael Bailey is President of the Oregon Advocacy Center and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems. He has two daughters.
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