Re: "Stella Adler" book & Willy Loman's car insurance

Thanks very much for your message, which raises an excellent point that hadn’t occurred to me before.  First, to answer your specific question re: the plot synopsis that opens the “Death of a Salesman” chapter:

“A brief Requiem reveals that [Willy’s insurance] policy didn’t cover suicide,” it says.  Those words (like all the words in the opening play synopses throughout the book) are mine, not Stella Adler’s---as indicated by the “B.P.” initials below them.

Second, you’re quite right that playwright Arthur Miller put no such explicit statement in the Requiem.  But I think you’ve missed that implicit fact---Miller’s subtle set-up!---about 10 pages earlier, when Willy unveils his “guaranteed $20,000 proposition” to go out with a bang, impress everybody, and leave Biff the big life-changing windfall.  His friend Ben warns: “You don’t want to make a fool of yourself.  They might not honor the policy.”  Willy says: “How can they dare refuse?  Didn’t I work like a coolie to meet every premium?  And they don’t pay off?  Impossible!”  Ben again: “Remarkable proposition, but you’ve got to be sure you’re not making a fool of yourself.”

The words “suicide” and “car crash” are never spoken, but we clearly get the idea.  All insurance policies---even in the 1940s---had a suicide-revocation clause.  In the Requiem, Hap’s line (“He had no right to do that”) and Linda’s (“I can’t understand it”) indicate they---and, by inference, the insurance co.---concluded it was obviously suicide.

Final proof is Biff’s line: “Why don’t you come with me, Hap?” (to seek his fortune out West) and Hap’s reply: “I’m not licked that easily”---i.e., they’re both as broke as ever.

But guess what?  You’re right: I made the wrong word choice!  I should not have said the Requiem “reveals” all that.  It infers it, from previous information.

Hence, 

Anyway, thanks for bringing it to my intention---and, even more, for reading and enjoying the book.