Arthur Miller’s Missing Act

From Vanity Fair, an article that examines the tragedy of one father’s refusal to accept his son’s disability. Upon his death two years ago, playwright Arthur Miller was extolled as America’s moral compass, a champion of personal responsibility. Yet when his son Daniel was born with Down syndrome in the 1960s, Miller sent him to an institution, cut him out of his life and never acknowledged him publicly. Friends said the playwright never visited with his son until the years preceding Miller’s death. The author tracks down Daniel Miller and describes the hellish conditions in the institutions in which he grew up, where children were warehoused without supervision and tied to chairs if they misbehaved. She describes Daniel as an engaging and personable man who has a job, a huge network of friends, and a passion for disability advocacy work, despite the fact that he did not receive a formal education. Upon the death of his father Daniel was granted a quarter of his father’s estate. Still, he never enjoyed a father-son relationship with the man who authored “All My Sons” and “Death of a Salesman.”

http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2007/09/miller200709?printable=true&currentPage=all