His 'killing instinct'

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) at his wedding, in 1956, to his second wife, Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962). They were divorced in 1961.

“I don’t know, I just couldn’t bear the idea of people trying to destroy each other, ‘cause I sensed very early on that all real arguments are murderous. There was a killing instinct in there that I feared. So, I put it into the theater.”

—Arthur Miller, American playwright and essayist) and long-time resident of Roxbury, Conn.

‘On four or five hooks’

Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe at their wedding, in 1956

Roxbury, Conn., in 1905.

“How few the days are that hold the mind in place, like a tapestry hung on four or five hooks. Especially the day you stop becoming; the day you merely are.’’

— Playwright Arthur Miller, in After the Fall, inspired by his failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe. He lived much of his adult life in Roxbury, Conn., amidst the many other literary and visual artists who called the town, in the Litchfield Hills, their home.

Where fence meets wall

Photo by Thomas Hook

Here are two kinds of barriers found all over rural New England, in this case in Roxbury, Conn., home of many celebrities over the years, perhaps most famously the playwright Arthur Miller and his (briefly) wife Marilyn Monroe.