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Harold Pinter
Pen nameHarold Pinta, David Baron (stage name)
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author, political activist
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipBritish
EducationGrammar school
Alma materHackney Downs School (1944–1948)
Period1947–2008
GenreDrama, screenplay, poetry, fiction, essay
Notable worksThe Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Betrayal
The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Trial, Sleuth
Art, Truth and Politics
Notable awardsDavid Cohen Prize (1995)
Laurence Olivier Award (1996)
Companion of Honour (2002)
Nobel Prize in Literature (2005)
Légion d'honneur (2007)
SpouseVivien Merchant (1956–1980)
Antonia Fraser (1980–2008)
Childrenone son with Merchant
six stepchildren with Fraser
Website
www.haroldpinter.org

Literature portal

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008), was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author, political activist, and the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature. At the time of his death, he was considered by many "the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation" and "one of the most influential British playwrights of modern times."[1]

After publishing poetry and acting in school plays as a teenager in London, Pinter began his professional theatrical career in 1951–1952, touring throughout Ireland,[2] and, in 1954, began acting in regional repertory companies throughout England, using the stage name David Baron for five years.[3][4] Beginning with his first play, The Room (1957), Pinter's writing career spanned over 60 years and produced 29 original stage plays, 27 screenplays, many dramatic sketches, radio and TV plays, poetry, one novel, short fiction, essays, speeches, and letters. His best-known works include the plays The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted to film, and his screenplay adaptations of others' works, such as The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He directed almost 50 stage, television, and film productions and acted extensively in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works.[3] Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001,[5][6] Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role in a critically acclaimed stage production of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006.[1]

Pinter's dramas often involve strong conflicts among ambivalent characters who struggle for verbal and territorial dominance and for their own versions of the past; stylistically, these works are marked by theatrical pauses and silences, comedic timing, irony, and menace.[7] Thematically ambiguous, they raise complex issues of individual identity oppressed by social forces, language, and vicissitudes of memory.[8] In 1981, after a brief talk at the University of East Anglia, Pinter stated that he was not inclined to write plays explicitly about political subjects (political theatre); yet in the mid-1980s he began writing overtly political plays, reflecting his own heightening political interests and changes in his personal life. This "new direction" in his work and his left-wing political activism stimulated additional critical debate about Pinter's politics.[9] Pinter, his work, and his politics have been the subject of voluminous critical commentary.[7]

In addition to the Nobel Prize in Literature and the French Légion d'honneur, Pinter received 20 honorary degrees and numerous other prizes and awards. Academic institutions and performing arts organizations have devoted symposia, festivals, and celebrations to him and his work, in recognition of his cultural influence and achievements across genres and media. In its own "Biobibliographical Notes" on Pinter, pertaining to his controversial Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy states that he is "generally regarded as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century," adding: "That he occupies a position as a modern classic is illustrated by his name entering the language as an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: 'Pinteresque' "[10]—a word he detested and found meaningless.[11] On 24 December 2008, he died from liver cancer and was buried the following week at Kensal Green Cemetery, in North West London.[12]

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Pinter was born on 10 October 1930, in Hackney, East London, England, to "very respectable, Jewish, lower middle class," native English parents of Eastern-European ancestry; his father, Jack Pinter (1902–1997), was a tailor of ladies' apparel, and his mother, Frances (née Moskowitz; 1904–1992), was admired for keeping a fastidious home and for her cooking.[13] Michael Billington, Pinter's authorised biographer, corrects previous misinformation first published by Martin Esslin, stating that Pinter's family background was Portuguese. Pinter had believed an aunt's view that the family fled the Spanish Inquisition; thus, in first publishing his poems in Poetry London, Pinter used the pseudonym Pinta and at other times used variations such as Pinto, or da Pinto (1–5).[14] Antonia Fraser's research cited by Billington, however, revealed such family legend to be apocryphal and that he was actually of Eastern European descent, by documenting that "three of Pinter's grandparents hail from Poland and one from Odessa, making them Ashkenazic rather than Sephardic Jews" (Harold Pinter 1–5).[15] He was evacuated from the family home at 19 Thistlewaite Road, "a solid, red-brick, three-storey villa just off the noisy, bustling, traffic-ridden thoroughfare of the Lower Clapton Road" (2), to Cornwall and Reading in 1940 and 1941. The "life-and-death intensity of daily experience" before and during the Blitz left Pinter with profound memories "of loneliness, bewilderment, separation and loss: themes that are in all his works" (5–10).[16][17]

Although he was a "solitary" only child, he "discovered his true potential" as a student at Hackney Downs School, the London grammar school "where Pinter spent the formative years from 1944 to 1948. ... Partly through the school and partly through the social life of Hackney Boys' Club ... he formed an almost sacerdotal belief in the power of male friendship. The friends he made in those days—most particularly Henry Woolf, Michael (Mick) Goldstein and Morris (Moishe) Wernick—have always been a vital part of the emotional texture of his life" (Billington, Harold Pinter 11; cf. Woolf).[14] A major influence on Pinter was his inspirational English teacher, mentor, and friend Joseph Brearley, who directed him in school plays and with whom he took long walks throughout Hackney, talking about literature.[18] According to Billington, under Brearley's instruction, "Pinter shone at English, wrote for the school magazine and discovered a gift for acting" (Harold Pinter 10–11).[19] He played Romeo and Macbeth in 1947 and 1948, in productions directed by Brearley (Billington, Harold Pinter 13–14).[19][20] At the age of 12, Pinter began writing poetry, and in Spring 1947, his poetry was first published in the Hackney Downs School Magazine (Baker and Ross 127). In the early 1950s "Pinter continued to write poetry and short prose pieces; his poetry was first published [outside the school magazine] in Poetry London in [August] 1950 [under Harold Pinter and in November 1950] under the pseudonym Harold Pinta."[4][21] He also especially enjoyed running and broke the Hackney Downs School sprinting record (Gussow, Conversations with Pinter 28–29).[22]

Sport and friendship[edit]

Pinter was an avid cricket enthusiast most of his life, taking his cricket bat with him when he was evacuated as a pre-teenager during the Blitz (Billington, Harold Pinter 7–9; 410). In 1971 he told Gussow: "one of my main obsessions in life is the game of cricket—I play and watch and read about it all the time" (Conversations with Pinter 25). Being Chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club and a "lifetime support[er] of the Yorkshire Cricket Club" (8), Pinter devoted an entire section of his official website to the sport ("Gaieties Cricket Club").[23] One wall of his study was dominated by "A huge portrait of a younger, vigorous Mr. Pinter playing cricket, one of his great passions ... The painted Mr. Pinter, poised to swing his bat, has a wicked glint in his eye; testosterone all but flies off the canvas" (Lyall, "Still Pinteresque" 16 [illus.]).[24][25][26] As Billington documents, "Robert Winder observes how even Pinter's passion for cricket was far removed from a jocular, country-house pursuit: 'Harold stands for a different tradition, a more urban and exacting idea of cricket as a bold theatre of aggression' " (Harold Pinter 410).[22] His last interview, conducted by the Guardian's Andy Bull two months before Pinter's death and published a few days after it, revealed "his childhood love of cricket and why it is better than sex." After his death, in memorial accounts, several of his Hackney Downs School contemporaries recalled his achievements and prowess in sports, especially cricket and running (Supple, T. Baker, Watkins). As part of the BBC Radio 4 memorial tribute, his friend and fellow Gaieties teammate, actor and director Harry Burton presented an essay on Pinter and cricket.[27]

Other main loves or interests that he mentioned to Gussow, Billington, and other interviewers (in varying order of priority) are family, love (of women) and sex, drinking, writing, and reading.[28] According to Billington, "If the notion of male loyalty, competitive rivalry and fear of betrayal forms a constant thread in Pinter's work from The Dwarfs onwards, its origins can be found in his teenage Hackney years. Pinter adores women, enjoys flirting with them, worships their resilience and strength. But, in his early work especially, they are often seen as disruptive influences on some pure, Platonic ideal of male friendship: one of the most crucial of all Pinter's lost Edens" (Harold Pinter 10–12).[29]

Early theatrical training and stage experience[edit]

Beginning in late 1948, Pinter attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for two terms, but hating RADA, he missed most of his classes, feigned a nervous breakdown, and dropped out in 1949.[30] In 1948 he was also "called up for National Service," registered as a conscientious objector, was brought to trial twice, and ultimately fined by the magistrate for refusing to serve (Billington, Harold Pinter 20–25). He had a small part in Dick Whittington and His Cat at the Chesterfield Hippodrome in 1949 to 1950.[31] From January to July 1951, he attended the Central School of Speech and Drama.[32]

From 1951 to 1952, he toured Ireland with the Anew McMaster repertory company, playing over a dozen roles.[2] In 1952 he began acting in regional English repertory productions; from 1953 to 1954, he worked for the Donald Wolfit Company, King's Theatre, Hammersmith, performing eight roles.[3][33] From 1954 until 1959, Pinter acted under the stage name David Baron.[34][35] As Batty observes: "Following his brief stint with Wolfit's company in 1953, this was to be Pinter's daily life for five years, and his prime manner of earning a living alongside stints as a waiter, a postman, a bouncer and snow-clearer whilst all the time harbouring ambitions as a poet and writer" (About Pinter 10). In Pinter: The Player's Playwright, David Thompson lists Pinter's performances using his stage name David Baron, including all those in English regional repertory companies, nearly twenty-five roles.[35][36] In October 1989, Pinter told Mel Gussow: "I was in English rep as an actor for about 12 years. My favourite roles were undoubtedly the sinister ones. They're something to get your teeth into" (Conversations with Pinter 83). During that period, he also performed occasional roles in his own and others' works (for radio, TV, and film), as he did later as well.[3][35][37]

Marriage and family life[edit]

From 1956 until 1980, Pinter was married to Vivien Merchant, a repertory actress whom he met on tour, probably best known for her performance in the original film Alfie (1966); their son, Daniel, was born in 1958 (Billington, Harold Pinter 54, 75). Through the early 1970s, Merchant appeared in many of Pinter's works, most notably The Homecoming on stage (1965) and screen (1973), but the marriage was turbulent and began disintegrating in the mid-1960s (252–56). For seven years, from 1962 to 1969, Pinter was engaged in a clandestine affair with BBC-TV presenter and journalist Joan Bakewell, which inspired his 1978 play Betrayal (257–67). Initially the play was considered a response to consequences of his affair with historian Antonia Fraser, the wife of Hugh Fraser. Though "both the external events and many of the internal details derive directly from his own life" (257), Billington clarifies that Betrayal was inspired by his earlier affair with Bakewell: "Given the play's title and theme, it was inevitably assumed when it was first produced in 1978 that it had something to do with his own marital crack-up"; yet, "When Mel Gussow raised that very question, Pinter quickly kiboshed the assumption: 'I'm very glad you asked me that question because I can tell you that it's totally irrelevant. One thing has absolutely nothing to do with another.' " Nevertheless, Billington stresses that "In fact, Betrayal is based – even down to the general chronology and specific incidents – on" Pinter's affair with Bakewell, which "long predated his meeting with Antonia Fraser [1969] and lasted from 1962 to 1969" (257; cf. 258–67).

Though the Pinters had both met Antonia Fraser first in 1969, when Vivien Merchant and she both worked together on a National Gallery programme about Mary Queen of Scots (Billington, Harold Pinter 253), it was not until January 1975 that Pinter became romantically involved with her: "For six weeks in early 1975 the affair was conducted in clandestine secrecy" (252). After Vivien Merchant returned from acting in Death of a Salesman at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, where she had become ill and had to return home for convalescence, Pinter felt that he could not tell her about "his state of emotional turmoil, though he did confide in Peggy Ashcroft, to whom he was very close at the time, as well as to Peter Hall and [the Pinters' mutual friend artist] Guy Vaesen" (252–53). Pinter confessed the affair to his wife in late March 1975, who, Vaesen reported to Billington, "initially took it very well: 'She said she liked Antonia, having worked with her on the National Gallery recital, and that she was a very nice woman.' But Vaesen's recollection is that a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia" (Billington, Harold Pinter 253). After that, "Life in Hanover Terrace gradually became impossible," and Pinter moved out of their house on 28 April 1975, five days into Hall's première of No Man's Land (253). First, Pinter stayed in an apartment owned by Sam Spiegel, and next he moved in "with his old friend Donald Pleasence and his family … where [the Pinters' only child] Daniel quickly joined him," as Pinter (as confirmed by Vaesen) found that "Vivien couldn't cope with bringing up Daniel alone" (Billington, Harold Pinter 253). She gave an interview to the Daily Mail and other British tabloids, and then, after "threatening all summer to sue Pinter for divorce, publicly citing Antonia if he did not return to her," on 27 July 1975, she finally filed for divorce, resulting in further "press fascination" with their break up (253).[38] Billington observes: "For all concerned, it was a traumatic summer: one of separation, confrontation, pursuit and flight. What kept the story alive were Vivien's indiscretions and her refusal to accept the role of the mutely suffering wife. Everyone else, to their credit, maintained a stoical silence" (Harold Pinter 254–55).

After spending two years acting and directing whilst living in temporary borrowed and rented quarters, in August 1977, Pinter and Antonia Fraser moved permanently into the Frasers' family home in Holland Park, where he wrote Betrayal (257). After the Frasers' divorce had become final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980, in the third week of October 1980, Pinter married Antonia Fraser; however, because of a two-week delay in Vivien Merchant's signing the divorce papers, the reception had to precede the actual ceremony, originally scheduled to occur on 10 October 1980, his 50th birthday (271–72).[39]

Unable to overcome her bitterness and grief at the loss of her husband, Vivien Merchant died of acute alcoholism in the first week of October 1982 at the age of 53 (Billington, Harold Pinter 276).[40] According to Billington, who cites Merchant's close friends and Pinter's associates, Pinter "did everything possible to support" her until her death and regretted that he ultimately became estranged from their son, Daniel, after their separation, Pinter's remarriage, and Vivien Merchant's death (276, 345–47). A reclusive gifted musician and writer (345), Daniel stopped using the surname Pinter in the summer of 1975, when he was living with Pinter and Antonia Fraser, adopting instead Brand, the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. Billington observes: "Eventually, the press fever abated a bit and in late August Pinter and Antonia returned to London, setting up residence in a house in Launceston Place in South Kensington. 'Logistically,' Antonia recalls, 'it was very difficult. Harold couldn't do anything in the house. He [Daniel] was very nice to me at a time when it would have been only too easy for him to have turned on me … simply because he had been the sole focus of his father's love and now manifestly wasn't.' Significantly," Billington adds, "Daniel at this time changed his name from Pinter to Brand, his grandmother's maiden name. Pinter, however, does not see this as a symbolic rejection of himself; it was, he claims, a largely pragmatic move on Daniel's part designed to keep the press, who [at that time] had been relentlessly hounding him also, at bay" (Harold Pinter 254–55). Still unreconciled at the time of his father's death, Daniel Brand did not attend Pinter's funeral.[41]

While Billington observes that "The break-up with Vivien and the new life with Antonia was to have a profound effect on Pinter's personality and his work," he also acknowledges that Fraser herself "is quick to qualify the idea that she had any direct input into his plays and points out that other people [such as Peggy Ashcroft, among others] had a shaping influence on his politics," attributing later changes in his writing and his "engagement with the public world" to the "drastic change" from "an unhappy, complicated personal life ... to a happy, uncomplicated personal life," so that "a side of Harold which had always been there was somehow released. I think you can see that in his work after No Man's Land [1975,] which was a very bleak play" (255).

Pinter stated publicly in interviews that he was content in his second marriage and enjoyed family life with his six adult stepchildren and 17 step-grandchildren.[42] Even after battling cancer for several years, he considered himself "a very lucky man in every respect."[43] According to Sarah Lyall, who interviewed him in London for her Sunday New York Times preview of Sleuth, Pinter's "latest work, a slim pamphlet called 'Six Poems for A.,' comprises poems written over 32 years, with 'A' being Lady Antonia. The first of the poems was written in Paris, where she and Pinter traveled soon after they met. More than three decades later the two were rarely apart, and Mr. Pinter turned soft, even cozy, when he talked about his wife" ("Still Pinteresque" 16). In the interview conducted by Lyall, Pinter "acknowledged that his plays—full of infidelity, cruelty, inhumanity, the lot—seem at odds with his domestic contentment. 'How can you write a happy play?' he said. 'Drama is about conflict and degrees of perturbation, disarray. I've never been able to write a happy play, but I've been able to enjoy a happy life' " ("Still Pinteresque" 16).

Civic activities and political activism[edit]

In 1948–49, when he was 18, Pinter opposed the politics of the Cold War, leading to his decision to become a conscientious objector and to refuse to comply with National Service. But he was not a pacifist. He told Billington and others that, if he had been old enough at the time, he would have fought against the Nazis in World War II (Harold Pinter 21–24, 92, & 286). He seemed to express ambivalence about "politicians" in his 1966 Paris Review interview conducted by Lawrence M. Bensky. Yet, he had actually been an early member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom and also had supported the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (1959–1994), participating in British artists' refusal to permit professional productions of their work in South Africa, by signing the "Public Declaration of Playwrights Against Apartheid" in 1963 (Hadley) and in subsequent related campaigns (Mbeki; Reddy).[44]

In his last twenty-five years, Pinter increasingly focused his essays, speeches, interviews, literary readings, and other public appearances directly on contemporary political issues. He strongly opposed the 1991 Gulf War, the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War, the United States' 2001 War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Among his provocative political statements, Pinter called Prime Minister Tony Blair a "deluded idiot" and compared the administration of President George W. Bush to Nazi Germany. He stated that the U.S. "was charging towards world domination while the American public and Britain's 'mass-murdering' prime minister sat back and watched."[45] The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Pinter and his sharp political statements have elicited some strong public criticism and even, at times, provoked ridicule and personal attacks.[46] David Edgar, writing in the Guardian, defended Pinter against what he termed Pinter's "being berated by the belligerati" like Hari, who, unlike his supporters such as Edgar, Sir Tom Stoppard, David Hare, and Václav Havel, felt that he did not "deserve" winning the Nobel Prize.[47]

Career[edit]

As actor[edit]

Pinter's acting career spanned over fifty years and, despite his critical reputation for generally playing the "heavy", included many wide-ranging roles in all four dramatic media: radio, stage, film, and television.[3][48][49] In addition to roles in radio and television adaptations of his own plays and dramatic sketches, early in his screenwriting career, he made several cameo appearances in films based on his own screenplays; for example, as a society man in The Servant (1963) and as Mr. Bell in Accident (1967), both directed by Joseph Losey; and as a bookshop customer in his later film Turtle Diary (dir. John Irvin, 1985), starring Michael Gambon, Glenda Jackson, and Ben Kingsley.[3][48] His notable acting film and television roles in his later years included a drunk Irish journalist in Langrishe, Go Down (dir. David Hugh Jones), starring Judi Dench and Jeremy Irons (distributed on DVD by Image Entertainment after being shown originally on BBC Two in 1978)[48]; it was re-released in movie theatres on 16 mm film in 2002, after being screened in The Spaces Between the Words: A Tribute to Harold Pinter, by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, held from 21 to 31 July 2001, as part of the Harold Pinter Festival, at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in New York City, which began on 16 July.[50] On the big screen Pinter also played a criminal named Sam Ross in the 1997 film Mojo (written and dir. by Jez Butterworth, 1997), based on Butterworth's own 1995 stage play Mojo, set in London of the 1950s; Sir Thomas Bertram (his most substantial feature-film role) in Mansfield Park (dir. Patricia Rozema, 1998), distributed in 1999 by Miramax and also as part of The Patricia Rozema DVD Collection, by Alliance Atlantis—a character whom Pinter described in publicity posted on his website as "a very civilised man ... a man of great sensibility but in fact, he's upholding and sustaining a totally brutal system [the slave trade] from which he derives his money..."; and Uncle Benny, opposite Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush, in The Tailor of Panama (dir. John Boorman, 2001).[3] In other television films, he played a corrupt lawyer named Saul Abrahams,[48] opposite Peter O'Toole, in BBC TV's Rogue Male (dir. Clive Donner, 1976)—a remake of the 1941 film noir Man Hunt, by Fritz Lang—released on DVD by Diamond Entertainment in 2002; the Director opposite John Gielgud (Gielgud's last role) and Rebecca Pidgeon in Catastrophe, by Samuel Beckett (dir. David Mamet), part of Beckett On Film (2001); and Mr. Bearing, the father of ovarian cancer patient Vivian Bearing (played by Emma Thompson), in the HBO film of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit (dir. Mike Nichols, 2001).[3][48]

As director[edit]

Pinter began to direct more frequently during the 1970s, becoming an associate director of the National Theatre (NT) in 1973. He directed almost 50 productions of his own and others' plays for stage, film, and television, including 10 productions of works by Simon Gray: the stage and/or film premières of Butley (stage, 1971; film, 1974), Otherwise Engaged (1975), The Rear Column (stage, 1978; TV, 1980), Close of Play (NT, 1979), Quartermaine's Terms (1981), Life Support (1997), The Late Middle Classes (1999), and The Old Masters (2004). Several of those productions starred Alan Bates (1934–2003), who originated the stage and screen roles of not only Butley but also Mick in Pinter's first major commercial success, The Caretaker (stage, 1960; film, 1964), and Nicolas in One for the Road and the cab driver in Victoria Station, in Pinter's own double-bill produced at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1984. Among over 35 plays, he also directed Next of Kin (1974), by John Hopkins; Blithe Spirit (1976), by Noël Coward; Circe and Bravo (1986), by Donald Freed; Taking Sides (1995), by Ronald Harwood, and Twelve Angry Men (1996), by Reginald Rose.[3][51]

As screenwriter[edit]

Pinter is the author of 27 screenplays and film scripts for cinema and television, all but four of which were filmed, published, or converted to stage plays. His fame as a screenwriter began with his three screenplays written for films directed by Joseph Losey, leading to their close collaboration and friendship: The Servant (1963), based on the novel by Robin Maugham and starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox; Accident (1967), adapted from the novel by Nicholas Mosley and starring Bogarde, Pinter's first wife Vivien Merchant, Jacqueline Sassard, Delphine Seyrig, and Michael York; and The Go-Between (1970), based on the novel by L. P. Hartley and starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie.

Pinter also wrote the screenplay for The Pumpkin Eater (1964), adapted from the novel by Penelope Mortimer, directed by Jack Clayton and starring Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, and James Mason and featuring Cedric Hardwicke, Yootha Joyce, Maggie Smith, and others.

Subsequently, Pinter adapted The Quiller Memorandum (1966), from the 1965 spy novel The Berlin Memorandum, by Elleston Trevor (aka Adam Hall and Trevor Dudley-Smith), directed by Michael Anderson, starring George Segal and featuring Senta Berger, Alec Guinness, and Max von Sydow; The Last Tycoon (1976), from the unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, staged by Elia Kazan, produced by Sam Spiegel, and starring Tony Curtis, Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, and Theresa Russell; The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), from the novel by John Fowles, directed by Karel Reisz, and starring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep; Turtle Diary (1985), starring Michael Gambon, Glenda Jackson, and Ben Kingsley, from the novel by Russell Hoban; The Heat of the Day (1988), a television film, from the 1949 novel by Elizabeth Bowen; The Comfort of Strangers (1990), from the novel by Ian McEwan, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Rupert Everett, Helen Mirren, Natasha Richardson, and Christopher Walken; and The Trial (1993), from the novel by Franz Kafka, directed by David Hugh Jones and starring Kyle MacLachlan with cameo appearances by Anthony Hopkins, Alfred Molina, Juliet Stevenson, and others.

Films based on Pinter's screenplay adaptations of his own stage plays are The Caretaker (1963), directed by Clive Donner; The Birthday Party (1968), directed by William Friedkin;The Homecoming (1973), directed by Peter Hall for the American Film Theatre; and Betrayal (1983), with David Hugh Jones directing. Pinter's screenplays for both The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal were nominated for Academy Awards in the category of "Writing: Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium" in 1981 and 1983, respectively.

His commissioned screenplay adaptations from others' works for the released films The Handmaid's Tale (1990), The Remains of the Day (1990), and Lolita remain unpublished and, in the case of only the latter two films, uncredited, though several scenes from or aspects of his scripts were also used in these finished films (Hudgins, "Three Unpublished Harold Pinter Filmscripts" 132–39). His published screenplays The Proust Screenplay (1972), Victory (1982), and The Dreaming Child (1997) and his unpublished screenplay "The Tragedy of King Lear" (2000) have not been filmed (Gale, Sharp Cut).[52] According to Baker and Ross, a section of Pinter's Proust Screenplay was, however, released as the 1984 film Swann in Love (Un amour de Swann), directed by Volker Schlöndorff and starring Jeremy Irons and Ornella Muti, and it was also adapted by Michael Bakewell as a 2-hour radio drama broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December 1995 (xxxiii); later Pinter and director Di Trevis collaboratively adapted it to the stage, as Remembrance of Things Past, opening at the National Theatre in 2000 (xxxviii–ix).

Pinter's screenwriting career culminated in his last filmed screenplay adaptation of the 1970 Tony Award-winning play Sleuth, by Anthony Shaffer, which was commissioned by Jude Law, one of the film's producers.[6][53][54] It is the basis for the 2007 film Sleuth, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Michael Caine as Andrew Wyke (played by Laurence Olivier in the 1972 film of Sleuth) and Law as Milo Tindle (played by Caine in the earlier film).[6][53][54]

As playwright[edit]

Pinter is the author of 29 plays and 15 dramatic sketches and the co-author of two works for stage and radio.[7][55] Along with the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play for The Homecoming and several other American awards and award nominations, he and his plays received many awards in the UK and elsewhere throughout the world.[56]

1957–2001[edit]

"Comedies of menace" (1957–1968)[edit]
The Room and The Birthday Party (1957)

Pinter's first play, The Room, written and first performed in 1957, was a student production at the University of Bristol, "commissioned" and directed by his good friend (later acclaimed) actor Henry Woolf, who also originated the role of Mr. Kidd (which he reprised in 2001 and 2007).[55] After Pinter had mentioned that he had an "idea" for a play, Woolf asked him to write it so that he could direct it as part of fulfilling requirements for his postgraduate work. Pinter wrote it in three days.[57] To mark and celebrate the 50th anniversary of that first production of The Room, Woolf reprised his role of Mr. Kidd, as well as his role of the Man in Pinter's play Monologue, in April 2007, as part of an international conference at the University of Leeds, Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter.

Written in 1957 and produced in 1958, Pinter's second play, The Birthday Party, one of his best-known works, was initially both a commercial and critical disaster, despite a rave review in the Sunday Times by its influential drama critic Harold Hobson, which appeared only after the production had closed and could not be reprieved (Hobson, "The Screw Turns Again").[58] Critical accounts often quote Hobson's prophetic words:

One of the actors in Harold Pinter[']s The Birthday Party at the Lyric, Hammersmith, announces in the programme that he read History at Oxford, and took his degree with Fourth Class Honours. Now I am well aware that Mr Pinter[']s play received extremely bad notices last Tuesday morning. At the moment I write these it is uncertain even whether the play will still be in the bill by the time they appear, though it is probable it will soon be seen elsewhere. Deliberately, I am willing to risk whatever reputation I have as a judge of plays by saying that The Birthday Party is not a Fourth, not even a Second, but a First; and that Pinter, on the evidence of his work, possesses the most original, disturbing and arresting talent in theatrical London.... Mr Pinter and The Birthday Party, despite their experiences last week, will be heard of again. Make a note of their names.

Hobson was generally credited by Pinter himself and other critics as bolstering him and perhaps even rescuing his career (Billington, Harold Pinter 85); for example, in their September 1993 interview, Pinter told the New York Times critic Mel Gussow: "I felt pretty discouraged before Hobson. He had a tremendous influence on my life" (141).

In a review published in 1958, borrowing from the subtitle of The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace, a play by David Campton (1924–2006), critic Irving Wardle called Pinter's early plays "comedy of menace"—a label that people have applied repeatedly to his work, at times "pigeonholing" and attempting to "tame" it.[59][60] Such plays begin with an apparently innocent situation that becomes both threatening and "absurd" as Pinter's characters behave in ways often perceived as inexplicable by his audiences and one another. Pinter acknowledges the influence of Samuel Beckett, particularly on his early work; they became friends, sending each other drafts of their works in progress for comments.[61]

The Hothouse (1958/1980), The Dumb Waiter (1959), The Caretaker (1959), and other early plays

Early in his career as a playwright, after writing The Birthday Party, Pinter wrote The Hothouse (1958/1980), which he shelved for over 20 years (See "Overtly political sketches …" below). Then he wrote The Dumb Waiter (1959).[55] Although The Dumb Waiter premiered in Germany and was produced in a double bill with The Room at the Hampstead Theatre Club, in London, also in 1960, it was not produced very often until the 1980s, and it has been revived more frequently since 2000, including the West End Trafalgar Studios production directed by Harry Burton in 2007. The first production of The Caretaker, at the Arts Theatre Club, in London, in 1960, established Pinter's theatrical reputation (Jones), Large radio and television audiences for his one-act play A Night Out, along with the popularity of his revue sketches, propelled him to further critical attention (Merritt, Pinter in Play 18). In 1964, four years after the success of The Caretaker, through its long run at the Duchess Theatre, which garnered an Evening Standard Award, The Birthday Party was revived both on television (with Pinter himself in the role of Goldberg) and on stage (directed by Pinter at the Aldwych) and well received (Merritt, Pinter in Play 18, 219–20). By the time Peter Hall's London production of The Homecoming (1964) reached Broadway (1967), Harold Pinter had become a celebrity playwright, and the play garnered four Tony awards, among other awards ("Harold Pinter" at the Internet Broadway Database). During this period, Pinter also wrote the radio play A Slight Ache, first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme (BBC Radio 3) in 1959 and then adapted to the stage and performed at the Arts Theatre Club in 1961; A Night Out (1960), which was broadcast to a large audience on ABC Television's Armchair Theatre, after being transmitted on BBC Radio Third Programme, also in 1960, and Night School (1961), first televised on Associated Rediffusion; The Collection, which premièred at the Aldwych Theatre in 1962; and The Dwarfs, adapted from his then unpublished (only) novel of the same title and broadcast on radio first in 1960, then re-adapted for staging (also at the Arts Theatre Club) in a double bill with The Lover, which was then televised on Associated Rediffusion in 1963; and Tea Party, a play that Pinter developed from his 1963 short story, first broadcast on television (BBC TV) in 1965.

Working as both a screenwriter and as a playwright, Pinter composed a script called "The Compartment" (1966), for a trilogy of films to be contributed by Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Pinter, of which only Beckett's film, entitled Film, was actually produced. Then Pinter turned his unfilmed script into a television play, which was produced as The Basement, both on BBC 2, and also on stage in 1968.[62]

"Memory plays" (1968–1982)[edit]

From the late sixties through the early eighties, Pinter wrote Landscape (1968), Silence (1969), Night (1969), Old Times (1971), No Man's Land (1975), The Proust Screenplay (1977), Betrayal (1978), Family Voices (1981), Victoria Station (1982), and A Kind of Alaska (1982), all of which dramatise complex ambiguities, elegiac mysteries, comic vagaries, and other "quicksand"-like characteristics of memory and which critics sometimes classify as Pinter's "memory plays".[8] Pinter's plays Party Time (1991), Moonlight (1993), Ashes to Ashes (1996), and Celebration (2000) draw upon some features of his "memory" dramaturgy in their focus on the past in the present, but they have personal and political resonances and other tonal differences from these more-clearly-identifiable "memory plays".[8][63]

"Overtly political plays" and sketches (1980–2000)[edit]

During the 1980s, most particularly following a three-year period of "creative blankness in the early 1980s" after his marriage to Lady Antonia Fraser and the death of Vivien Merchant, as mentioned by Billington (Harold Pinter 258), Pinter's plays tended to become shorter and more overtly political, serving as critiques of oppression, torture, and other abuses of human rights,[64] linked by the apparent "invulnerability of power" (Grimes 119).

First Pinter resurrected The Hothouse, which he had written in 1958, between The Birthday Party and The Caretaker but had set aside until 1979, when, after re-discovering his manuscript, he re-read and made some changes to it and then directed its first production himself at Hampstead Theatre, in London ("Author's Note").[65] Like his other plays of this period, The Hothouse is about authoritarianism and the abuses of power politics, but it is also highly comic, more like his earlier comedies of menace, and Pinter himself played the major role of Roote in a revival at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 1995.[66]

The brief dramatic sketch Precisely (1983) is a duologue between two bureaucrats exposing the absurd power politics of mutual nuclear annihilation and deterrence. His first overtly political one-act play is One for the Road (1984). In Nick Hern's interview with Pinter "A Play and Its Politics" conducted in February 1985 and published with the first British and American editions of One for the Road, Pinter states that whereas his earlier plays presented "metaphors" for power and powerlessness (8–9), the later ones present literal "realities" of power and its abuse (16–17, 21). Grimes proposes, "If it is too much to say that Pinter faults himself for his earlier political inactivity, his political theater dramatizes the interplay and conflict of the opposing poles of involvement and disengagement" (19).

The dramatic sketch The New World Order (1991), according to the Independent on Sunday reviewer Robert Cushman, provides "ten nerve wracking minutes" of two men threatening to torture a third man who is blindfolded, gagged, and bound in a chair; Pinter directed the British première at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, where it opened on 9 July 1991, and the Royal Court production went on to be performed in Washington, D.C.[67] In April 1991, prior to its stage première, he had sent an audio recording of himself reading this sketch for presentation at the International Pinter Festival held by the Harold Pinter Society at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, where a panel was first convened on the subject of Pinter and Politics (Merritt, Pinter in Play xi). The sketch was subsequently performed by Scena Theatre, also in Washington, D.C., in 1994.[67] In the same year, he wrote the longer political satire Party Time (1991), which premièred at the Almeida Theatre, in London, in a double-bill with Mountain Language (1988); it was published first as a play for the stage (Faber, 1991).[68] After Pinter adapted it as a television screenplay in 1992, which he directed when it was transmitted on 17 November of that year, Party Time was published in a new edition by Grove Press in 1993, including additional scenes and camera directions.[69]

Intertwining political and personal concerns, his next full-length plays, Moonlight (1993) and Ashes to Ashes (1996) are set in domestic households and focus on dying and death. Devlin and Rebecca in Ashes to Ashes cite unspecified "atrocities" in their conversations, which allude to details relating to the Holocaust.[70] After experiencing the deaths of first his mother (1992) and then his father (1997), again merging the personal and the political, Pinter wrote the poems "Death" (1997) (which he would read near the end of his 2005 Nobel Lecture) and "The Disappeared" (1998).

Paired with a revival of Pinter's first play, The Room, at the 2001 Lincoln Center Pinter Festival, Pinter's last stage play, Celebration (2000), is a hilarious social satire, set in a "posh restaurant" (Grimes 133), which lampoons The Ivy near Covent Garden, in London's West End theatre district, and its patrons: " 'Celebration' focuses on two groups of diners in a restaurant that London critics were quick to point out is very like the Ivy, a fabled theatre gathering place in the West End. As it happens, these revelers have just come from performances of either the ballet or the opera. Not that they can remember a darn thing about what they saw, including the titles. … these gilded, foul-mouthed souls are just as myopic when it comes to their own table mates (and for that matter, their food), with conversations that usually connect only on the surface, if there."[71] The play may appear superficially to have fewer overtly political resonances than such plays as One for the Road (1984), Mountain Language (1988), Party Time (1991), and Ashes to Ashes (1996). But its central male characters, brothers named Lambert and Matt, are apparently "empowered elites" (like the men "in charge" in Party Time) who describe themselves as "peaceful strategy consultants" because "we don't carry guns" (Celebration [London: Faber, 2000] 60). At the next table, their fellow diner Russell, a banker, describes himself as a "totally disordered personality […] a psychopath" (Celebration [London: Faber, 2000] 39), "while Lambert "vows to be reincarnated as '[a] more civilised, [a] gentler person, [a] nicer person' [56] than he is currently" (Grimes 129). Extreme viciousness underlies these characters' at times somewhat-smoother exteriors. Celebration evokes familiar Pinteresque political contexts for both Brantley and Grimes: "The ritzy loudmouths in 'Celebration', Harold Pinter's most recent play, and the quieter working-class mumblers of 'The Room', the first drama by Mr. Pinter ever produced, have everything in common beneath the surface" (Brantley); "Money remains in the service of entrenched power, and the brothers in the play are 'strategy consultants' whose jobs involve force and violence (arms dealers, perhaps). … It is tempting but inaccurate to equate the comic power inversions of the social behavior in Celebration with lasting change in larger political structures," Grimes finds, as he considers the play indicative of Pinter's purported "black pessimism" about the possibility of changing the status quo (130).

Grimes ties Celebration to Pinter's next-to-last sketch, Press Conference (2002), which, "like Celebration, invokes both torture and the fragile, circumscribed existence of dissent" (135). For its première in the National Theatre's two-part production of Sketches, despite undergoing chemotherapy at the time, Pinter played the ruthless Minister willing to murder little children for the benefit of "The State".[72]

As the Waiter's often comically unbelievable reminiscences about his grandfather demonstrate in Celebration, Pinter's final stage plays also extend some expressionistic aspects of his earlier "memory plays" whilst harkening back to his "comedies of menace" in the characters whom he must serve and in his final ominous speech concluding Pinter's last play:

My grandfather introduced me to the mystery of life and I'm still in the middle of it. I can't find the door to get out. My grandfather got out of it. He got right out of it. He left it behind him and he didn't look back.
He got that absolutely right.
And I'd like to make one further interjection.
He stands still.
Slow fade. (Celebration [London: Faber, 2000] 72)

Perhaps the Waiter reflects the influence of both Pinter's collaboration with director Di Trevis on Remembrance of Things Past (NT, 27 Nov. 2000 – 7 Feb. 2001)[73] and the revival of The Caretaker directed by Patrick Marber and starring Michael Gambon (as Davies), Rupert Graves (as Mick), and Douglas Hodge (as Aston), playing simultaneously at the Comedy Theatre, in London's West End (Nov. 2000 – Feb. 2001).[55]

2001–2008[edit]

From 16 to 31 July 2001, a Harold Pinter Festival celebrating his work curated by Michael Colgan, artistic director of the Gate Theatre, Dublin, was held as part of the annual Lincoln Center Festival at the Lincoln Center, in New York City, in which Pinter participated both as an actor, as Nicolas in One for the Road, and as a director of a double bill pairing his last play, Celebration, with his first play, The Room.[74]

As part of a two-week "Harold Pinter Homage" at the World Leaders Festival of Creative Genius, held from 24 September to 30 October 2001, at Harbourfront Centre, in Toronto, following the reception and during the dinner honouring him, Pinter presented a dramatic reading of Celebration (2000) and also participated in a public interview as part of the International Festival of Authors.[75]

In December 2001, Pinter was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, for which, in 2002, he underwent what he described afterwards in published and broadcast interviews as a "successful" operation and chemotherapy, thanking both his "brilliant surgeon" and his "brilliant wife" for their efforts on his behalf during that period.[76] During the course of his treatment, he directed a production of his play No Man's Land and wrote and performed in his new sketch "Press Conference" for a two-part otherwise-retrospective production of his dramatic sketches at the National Theatre (415–16). Since 2002, having become increasingly "engaged" as "a citizen" (Merritt, Pinter in Play 179), Pinter continued to write and present politically charged poetry, essays, speeches and two new unpublished screenplay adaptations of others' plays, "The Tragedy of King Lear" (completed in 2000 but unfilmed); and "Sleuth", based on Anthony Shaffer's 1970 play Sleuth (written in 2005, with revisions completed later for the 2007 film Sleuth).[77]

From 9 to 25 January 2003, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, in Manitoba, Canada, held a nearly month-long PinterFest, in which "over a 130 performances" of a dozen of Pinter's plays were produced by a dozen different theatre companies.[78] Productions during the Festival included: The Hothouse, by the Black Hole Theatre Company, University of Manitoba; Night School, by The Conspiracy Network; The Lover, by Dreamsurf; The Dumb Waiter, by The King's Players; The Homecoming, by the Manitoba Theatre Centre; The Birthday Party, by New Theatre; Monologue, by New Theatre; One for the Road, by Sarasvàti Productions; The Caretaker, by Tara Players; Ashes to Ashes, by Toothsome Breed Theatre Company; Celebration, by the University of Winnipeg Theatre Students' Association; and No Man's Land, by Who Knows Productions.[79]

On 28 February 2005, in an interview conducted by Mark Lawson on the BBC Radio 4 programme Front Row, Pinter announced publicly that he would stop writing plays to dedicate himself to his political activism and writing poetry: "I think I've written 29 plays. I think it's enough for me. I think I've found other forms now. My energies are going in different directions—over the last few years I've made a number of political speeches at various locations and ceremonies ... I'm using a lot of energy more specifically about political states of affairs, which I think are very, very worrying as things stand."

In later interviews and correspondence, he vowed to "keep fighting" politically,[80] remaining committed to writing and publishing poetry (e.g., his poems "The 'Special Relationship' ", "Laughter", and "The Watcher") and to continuing political pressure against the "status quo" and battling what he considered social injustices. Personally, he was also battling post-oesophageal cancer bouts of ill health, including "a rare skin disease called pemphigus"—a "very, very mysterious skin condition which emanated from the Brazilian jungle", as he described it[5]—and "a form of septicaemia which afflict[ed] his feet and [made] movement slow and laborious" (Billington, Harold Pinter 395). Yet, despite these afflictions, Pinter completed his screenplay for Sleuth in 2005 (418–20).[6]

His last dramatic work for radio, Voices (2005), a collaboration with composer James Clarke, adapting such selected works by Pinter to music, premièred on BBC Radio 3 on his 75th birthday (10 October 2005), three days before the October 13th announcement that he had won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature (Billington, Harold Pinter 420).

In an interview of Pinter on 12 March 2006, conducted as part of the Europe Theatre Prize award ceremony, in Turin, Italy, which was part of the Cultural Programme of the XX Winter Olympic Games, Billington asked Pinter, "Is the itch to put pen to paper still there?" He replied, "Yes. It's just a question of what the form is ... I've been writing poetry since my youth and I'm sure I'll keep on writing it till I conk out. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?"[5] In response, audience members shouted "in unison" a resounding No, urging him to keep writing (Merritt, "Europe Theatre Prize Celebration"). Along with the international symposium on Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics, curated by Billington, the Europe Theatre Prize theatrical events celebrating Pinter included new productions (in French) of Precisely (1983), One for the Road (1984), Mountain Language (1988), The New World Order (1991), Party Time (1991), and Press Conference (2002), "Six short political works by Harold Pinter, in the unpublished French versions by Jean Pavans"; and Pinter Plays, Poetry & Prose, an evening of dramatic readings by actors Charles Dance, Michael Gambon, Jeremy Irons, and Penelope Wilton, directed by Alan Stanford, of the Gate Theatre, Dublin.[81]

In June 2006, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) hosted "a celebration of [Pinter's] work in cinema," curated by his friend and fellow playwright David Hare, described as "a brilliant selection of film clips" which Hare introduced by saying: "To jump back into the world of Pinter's movies ... is to remind yourself of a literate mainstream cinema, focused as much as Bergman's is on the human face, in which tension is maintained by a carefully crafted mix of image and dialogue" (Billington, Harold Pinter 429).

Pinter occasionally left open the possibility that if a compelling dramatic "image" were to come to mind (though "not likely"), he would perhaps have pursued it. After making this point, with Rupert Graves in another location on screen, Pinter performed a dramatic reading of his "new work," "Apart From That", at the end of the interview conducted by Wark, broadcast live on Newsnight on 23 June 2006. This "very funny" dramatic sketch was inspired by Pinter's strong aversion to mobile telephones; "as two people trade banalities over their mobile phones there is a hint of something ominous and unspoken behind the clichéd chat" (Billington, Harold Pinter 429).

In an account of Pinter's interview conducted by Ramona Koval at the Edinburgh International Book Festival "Meet the Author" in late August 2006, Robinson reports: "Pinter, whose last published play came out in 2000, said the reason he had given up writing was that he had 'written himself out', adding: 'I recently had a holiday in Dorset and took a couple of my usual yellow writing pads. I didn't write a damn word. Fondly, I turned them over and put them in a drawer.' " It appeared to Robinson that "despite giving up writing [Pinter] will carry on his acting career." From another perspective, however, as Eden and Walker observe: "So keenly is Harold Pinter relishing his return to the stage this autumn [in Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape] that he has put his literary career on the back burner." Pinter said: "It's a great challenge and I'm going to have a crack at it."[82]

After returning to London from Edinburgh, in September 2006, he began rehearsing for his performance of the role of Krapp, which, the next month, he performed from a motorized wheelchair in a limited run at the Royal Court Theatre to sold-out audiences and "ecstatic" critical reviews.[83] The production of only nine performances, from 12 October, two days after Pinter's 76th birthday, to 24 October 2006, was the most sought-after ticket in London during the 50th-anniversary celebration season of the Royal Court Theatre; his performances sold out within minutes on the first morning of general ticket sales (4 September 2006).[84] One performance was filmed, produced on DVD, and shown on BBC Four on 21 June 2007.

Also in 2006, Sheffield Theatres hosted Pinter: A Celebration for a full month (11 Oct.–11 Nov. 2006). It featured selected productions of Pinter's plays (in order of presentation): The Caretaker, Voices, No Man's Land, Family Voices, Tea Party, The Room, One for the Road, and The Dumb Waiter; films (most his screenplays; some in which Pinter appears as an actor): The Go-Between, Accident, The Birthday Party, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Reunion, Mojo, The Servant, and The Pumpkin Eater; and other related events: Pause for Thought (Penelope Wilton and Douglas Hodge in conversation with Michael Billington), Ashes to Ashes—A Cricketing Celebration, a Pinter Quiz Night, the BBC Two documentary film Arena: Harold Pinter (introd. Anthony Wall, producer of Arena), The New World Order—A Pause for Peace (a consideration of "Pinter's pacifist writing" [both poems and prose] supported by the Sheffield Quakers), and a screening of "Pinter's passionate and antagonistic 45-minute Nobel Prize Lecture."[85]

In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Dumb Waiter, Lee Evans and Jason Isaacs starred as Gus and Ben in "a major West end revival," directed by Harry Burton, "in a limited seven week run" at the Trafalgar Studios, from 2 February 2007 through 24 March. Later in February 2007, John Crowley's film version of Pinter's play Celebration (2000) was shown on More4 (Channel 4, UK), "with a cast including James Bolam, Janie Dee, Colin Firth, James Fox, Michael Gambon, Julia McKenzie, Sophie Okonedo, Stephen Rea and Penelope Wilton." On 18 March 2007, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new radio production of The Homecoming, directed by Thea Sharrock and produced by Martin J. Smith, with Pinter performing the role of Max (for the first time; he had previously played Lenny on stage in 1964), Michael Gambon as Max's brother Sam, Rupert Graves as Teddy, Samuel West as Lenny, James Alexandrou as Joey, and Gina McKee as Ruth (M. J. Smith; West). A revival of The Hothouse, directed by Ian Rickson, with a cast including Stephen Moore (Roote), Lia Williams (Miss Cutts), and Henry Woolf (Tubb), among others, opened at the Royal National Theatre, in London, on 11 July 2007, playing through 27 July, concurrently with a revival of Betrayal at the Donmar Warehouse, starring Toby Stephens (Jerry), Dervla Kirwan (Emma), and Samuel West (Robert), as directed by Roger Michell (West).

Revivals in 2008 included the 40th anniverary production of the American première of The Homecoming on Broadway starring James Frain as Teddy, Ian McShane as Max, Raúl Esparza as Lenny, Michael McKean as Sam, and Eve Best as Ruth, and directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, which opened on 16 December 2007, for a "20-week limited engagement ... through 13 April 2008" at the Cort Theatre (Gans; Horwitz).[86] From 8 to 24 May 2008, the Lyric Hammersmith celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Birthday Party with a revival, directed by artistic director David Farr, and related events, including a gala performance and reception hosted by Harold Pinter on 19 May 2008, exactly fifty years after its London première there.

The final revival during Pinter's lifetime was a production of No Man's Land, directed by Rupert Goold; it opened at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, whose artistic director is Michael Colgan, in August 2008, and then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre, London, where it played through Saturday, 3 January 2009 (BWW News Desk). On the Monday before Christmas 2008, during its break, Pinter "was admitted to Hammersmith Hospital," where he died "two days later on Christmas Eve" from liver cancer, after having "suffered for more than five years from cancer of the oesophagus" ("Pinter Ends").[1][12] On Friday, 26 December 2008, when the production of No Man's Land reopened at the Duke of York's, expressing great sadness and appreciation for their playwright, the actors paid tribute to Pinter from the stage, with Gambon reading Hirst's monologue about his "photograph album" from Act Two that, in August, Pinter had selected for him to read at his funeral, ending with a standing ovation from the audience, many of whom were in tears:

I might even show you my photograph album. You might even see a face in it which might remind you of your own, of what you once were. You might see faces of others, in shadow, or cheeks of others, turning, or jaws, or backs of necks, or eyes, dark under hats, which might remind you of others, whom once you knew, whom you thought long dead, but from whom you will still receive a sidelong glance, if you can face the good ghost. Allow the love of the good ghost. They possess all that emotion . . . trapped. Bow to it. It will assuredly never release them, but who knows . . . what relief . . . it may give them . . . who knows how they may quicken . . . in their chains, in their glass jars. You think it cruel . . . to quicken them, when they are fixed, imprisoned? No . . . no. Deeply, deeply, they wish to respond to your touch, to your look, and when you smile, their joy . . . is unbounded. And so I say to you, tender the dead, as you would yourself be tendered, now, in what you would describe as your life. (69–70 of No Man's Land, in Four Plays)[87]

Posthumous events (2008–2010)[edit]

Funeral (31 December 2008)[edit]

Several accounts of the private funeral held for Pinter, a "half-hour ceremony conducted around the graveside" at Kensal Green Cemetery, on Wednesday afternoon, 31 December 2008, the week after his death, describe it as "directed" or "conducted" or "scripted" by Pinter himself, perhaps recalling the Father who speaks "from the grave" in his play Family Voices.[88] As Pinter's official biographer Michael Billington, who was among approximately 50 family and friends who attended the graveside ceremony, reports: "As recently as last August [2008], [Pinter] had sat down with his wife, Antonia Fraser, and selected the readings he wanted for his funeral." Michael Gambon read "a speech he nightly delivers on stage in No Man's Land, in which Hirst pays tribute to the emotion trapped in photo albums and asks us to 'tender the dead, as you would yourself be tendered, now, in what you would describe as your life' " (as qtd. above) and the poem "Death" (1997), which Pinter read toward the end of his 2005 Nobel Lecture, "Art, Truth and Politics"; Penelope Wilton "delivered with impeccable gravitas" a passage ending T. S. Eliot's "Little Gidding" (1942), the last of his Four Quartets: "So, while the light falls/On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel,/History is now and England"; Harry Burton, an actor, director, and member of Pinter's cricket team The Gaieties, "read Pinter's favourite cricket poem, Francis Thompson's At Lord's, in which the run-stealers eternally flicker to and fro"; and Stella Powell-Jones, Pinter's step-granddaughter, "read beautifully a love poem dedicated to [her grandmother] Antonia Fraser It Is Here, recalling the coup de foudre at Pinter's first meeting with his future wife." According to the Mail Online, "The only departure from his 'script' was at the end, when a tearful Antonia stepped forward to his grave and said: 'I always get this quotation wrong. I hope I get it right today,' " going on to quote Horatio's speech after the death of Prince Hamlet: "Good night sweet prince:/And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"

Memorial tributes[edit]

The night before Pinter's New Year's Eve burial, theatre marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights for a minute in tribute ("Friends"), and the final night of No Man's Land at the Duke of York's Theatre, on 3 January 2009, starting at 6:30 p.m., all of the Ambassador Theatre Group in the West End also dimmed their lights for an hour to honour the playwright (Smith, "Pinter to Be Honoured"). "A more public commemoration" is being planned in London; Pinter's "friends and family" have proposed that Pinter "be accorded the honour of a memorial in Westminster Abbey's 'Poets’ Corner'," where one of Pinter's most revered poets, Wilfred Owen, is commemorated among many others, though, reportedly, their proposal may be meeting some resistance due to Pinter's " 'anti-religious views' " (Eden).

After Pinter's death, at the end of January 2009, the Sydney Festival (then in progress), Dublin's Gate Theatre, and the Sydney Theatre Company, whose co-artistic directors are Australian actress Cate Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, announced that, on Sunday, 1 February, there would be a free, hour-long performance of readings from Pinter's works as a tribute to him. It was directed and introduced by Colgan and featured Blanchett, fellow Australian actor Robert Menzies (grandson of former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies and her co-star in The War of the Roses Cycle), and Gate Theatre actors Niall Buggy and Owen Roe. In their public statement, Blanchett and Upton "acknowledged the playwright's legacy," saying: "We are delighted to join with Sydney Festival and Ireland's celebrated Gate Theatre in this event marking the passing of one of the 20th century's theatre greats, Harold Pinter, whose influence over playwriting and performance has been so profound."[89] In his account of this event, John McCallum, Sydney theatre critic for the Australian, observes: "The occasion … was sad, but also a time for celebration"; after asking "Was it Pinter, or Blanchett and her fellow stars who drew the crowds?" and stating "Either way, they queued from midday for the 2pm start, to snap up the 900 tickets, allocated on a first-come, first-served basis," McCallum concludes: "It was a fine tribute. If some of the audience came for Blanchett, they left with Pinter."[90]

Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington proposed "an Early Day Motion in the Commons [signed initially by 22 other MPs] calling on the government to 'do all it can' to support the [residents'] campaign to restore the old Clapton Cinematograph Theatre, which opened in Lower Clapton Road in 1910" and to turn it into "a memorial to the great dramatist" ("MP Backs Pinter Tribute Campaign"). In speaking to the House of Commons on 16 January 2009, Abbott said: "Harold Pinter is a brilliant example of the creativity that thrives in Hackney. The area has always been a hub for the arts and many successful artists, writers, actors and film producers and journalists now live in the area. The idea of turning the building into a cinematic centre as a memorial to Harold Pinter is fantastic. I can think of no better way to honour this Hackney boy turned literary great and I fully support the campaign."[91]

On Saturday, 2 May 2009, from 11 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., a free public Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration: A Tribute to Harold Pinter, curated by Harry Burton, was held in the Harold M. Proshansky Auditorium, at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY). It was part of the Fifth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, taking place in New York City, from 27 April to 3 May 2009.[92] Another memorial celebration was held in the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, in London, on the evening of 7 June 2009; it consisted of "excerpts and readings from Pinter's work" by nearly three dozen of Britain's most-accomplished actors, many of whom were his friends and associates, including: Eileen Atkins, David Bradley, Harry Burton, Kenneth Cranham, Janie Dee, Andy de la Tour, Lindsay Duncan, Colin Firth, Henry Goodman, Sheila Hancock, Douglas Hodge, Jeremy Irons, Jude Law, Gina McKee, Roger Lloyd Pack, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, Indira Varma, Samuel West, Lia Williams, Penelope Wilton, Susan Wooldridge, and Henry Woolf; and a troupe of nine students from LAMDA.[93] It was directed by Ian Rickson, who had directed Pinter in Krapp's Last Tape at the Royal Court, in October 2006.[94]

Editor Craig Raine devotes most of issue 28 (Spring/Summer 2009) of the Arts Tri-Quarterly Areté (ISBN 9780955455384), to articles and other pieces remembering Harold Pinter, beginning with Pinter's 1987 unpublished love poem dedicated "To Antonia", which begins "She dances in my life." and is followed by the line in its original context, Pinter's poem "Paris", written in 1975, the year they began living together; these poems are followed by brief memoirs by some of Pinter's associates and friends, including Patrick Marber, Nina Raine, Nicholas Murray, Tom Stoppard, Peter Nichols, Susanna Gross, Marigold Johnson, Francis Wyndham, Nick Hern, Richard Eyre, Sarah Johnson, Ronald Harwood, David Hare, and Nigel Williams.

On 16 June 2009, Lady Antonia Fraser officially opened the Harold Pinter Room & Studio at the Hackney Empire, renaming the Hackney Empire Hospitality Suite.[95] This memorial event, attended by invited guests, also launched the Pinter Residency, "intended to establish the Hackney Empire as a centre for writers".[96] Its first recipient is social activist and writer Jan Woolf, of Cricklewood, whose play Porn Crackers is being performed at the Hackney Empire on 15, 16, and 19 July 2009.[96][97]

At a memorial cricket charity match on 27 September 2009, at Lord's Cricket Ground, the Gaieties Cricket Club plays the Lord's Taverners, followed by "a concert of words and music in the Long Room in the Lords pavillion to celebrate Harold Pinter's love of cricket," including such invited performers as Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, Bill Nighy, Roger Lloyd Pack, and Samuel West.[24][25] At the concert after the match, the winner of a public auction of the 2005 portrait of Pinter by Joe Hill–"a gift to Pinter from his team mates at Gaieties Cricket Club as a mark of their esteem and gratitude for Pinter's 40 years service to the club"–will be announced, with the "proceeds" going to benefit youth causes supported by the Taverners.[24][25]

Prior to Pinter's death, Irish theatre director Michael Colgan, who curated "four major festivals of [Pinter's] work" starting in 1994, including the 2001 Harold Pinter Festival, at Lincoln Center, in New York City, announced that he "is preparing for another major retrospective of his work in Dublin to take place in 2010," to mark Pinter's 80th birthday (BWW News Desk).

Honours[edit]

An Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association of America (1970), Pinter was appointed CBE in 1966 and became a Companion of Honour in 2002 (having previously declined a knighthood in 1996). In 1995 and 1996 he accepted the David Cohen Prize, in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and the Laurence Olivier Special Award for a lifetime's achievement in the theatre, respectively. In 1997 he became a BAFTA Fellow. He received the World Leaders Award for "Creative Genius" as the subject of a week-long "Homage" in Toronto, in October 2001. A few years later, in 2004, he received the Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry—"in recognition of Pinter's lifelong contribution to literature, 'and specifically for his collection of poetry entitled War, published in 2003' " (Wilfred Owen Association Newsletter). In March 2006 he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize, in recognition of lifetime achievements pertaining to drama and theatre ("Letter of Motivation"). In conjunction with that award, Michael Billington coordinated an international conference on Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics, including scholars and critics from Europe and the Americas, held in Turin, Italy, from 10 to 14 March 2006 (Harold Pinter 427–28).[8][81]

Nobel Prize in Literature[edit]

On 13 October 2005 the Swedish Academy announced that it had decided to award the Nobel Prize in Literature for that year to "Harold Pinter ... Who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms" (press release), instigating some public controversy and criticism relating both to characteristics of Pinter's work and to his politics.[46]

When interviewed that day about his own reaction to the Nobel Prize announcement by Billington, Pinter joked: "I was told today that one of the Sky channels said this morning that 'Harold Pinter is dead'. Then they changed their mind and said, 'No, he's won the Nobel prize.' So I've risen from the dead" (Billington, "They said").

Nobel Week, including the Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony in Stockholm and related events throughout Scandinavia, began in the first few days of December 2005. Due to medical concerns about his health, Pinter and his family could not attend the Awards Ceremony and those events. After the Academy notified him of his award, although he had arranged for his publisher (Stephen Page of Faber) to accept his Nobel Diploma and Nobel Medal at the Awards Ceremony scheduled for 10 December, he had still planned to travel to Stockholm, to present his lecture in person a few days earlier (Honigsbaum). In November, however, discovering the infection that would nearly kill him, his doctor hospitalised him and barred such travel (Billington, Harold Pinter 423–24).[6]

"Art, Truth and Politics": The Nobel Lecture[edit]

Though still hospitalised, Pinter went to a Channel 4 studio to videotape his Nobel Lecture: "Art, Truth and Politics," which was projected on three large screens at the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm, on the evening of 7 December 2005.[6][98]

Simultaneously transmitted on More 4 in the United Kingdom that evening, but "totally ignored by the BBC" (Billington, Harold Pinter 424), Pinter's 46-minute lecture was introduced on television by friend and fellow playwright David Hare. Subsequently, the full text and streaming video formats (without Hare's introduction) were posted for the public on the Nobel Prize and Swedish Academy official websites by the Nobel Foundation, which acknowledges Illuminations for the filmed streaming video version. In these formats Pinter's Nobel Lecture has been widely watched, cited, quoted, and distributed by print and online media and the source of much commentary and debate (425–27).

Pinter's Nobel Lecture "Art, Truth and Politics" provoked extensive public controversy, with some media commentators accusing Pinter of "anti-Americanism" (Allen-Mills). Yet in it he emphasizes that he criticizes policies and practices of American administrations (and those who voted for them), not all American citizens, many of whom he recognizes as "demonstrably sickened, shamed and angered by their government's actions," adding "but as things stand they are not a coherent political force — yet."[99]

As a result of his Nobel Prize and his controversial Nobel Lecture, interest in Pinter's life and work surged. They led to new revivals of his plays, to Billington's updating his biography (retitled Harold Pinter), and to new editions of Pinter's works, such as The Essential Pinter and The Dwarfs, by Grove Press, and a three-volume box set including The Birthday Party, No Man's Land, Mountain Language, and Celebration entitled Four Plays, by Faber. Illuminations released its DVD and VHS video recordings of Pinter's Nobel Lecture without Hare's introduction. Thus, this version is closest to what those in the audience in Stockholm experienced. The Illuminations DVD is also the version shown for the first public screening of "Art, Truth & Politics" before an audience in the United States, at the PEN World Voices Harold Pinter Tribute, in New York City, on 2 May 2009.[92]

Légion d'honneur[edit]

On 18 January 2007 the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, himself a published poet, presented Pinter with France's highest civil honour, the Légion d'honneur, at a ceremony at the French embassy in London, shortly after holding talks with Tony Blair. Prime Minister de Villepin "praised Mr Pinter's poem American Football (1991)" stating: " 'With its violence and its cruelty, it is for me one of the most accurate images of war, one of the most telling metaphors of the temptation of imperialism and violence.' " Then, "In return," Pinter "praised France for its opposition to the war in Iraq." M. de Villepin concluded: "The poet stands still and observes what doesn't deserve other men's attention. Poetry teaches us how to live and you, Harold Pinter, teach us how to live." He said that Pinter received the award particularly "because in seeking to capture all the facets of the human spirit, [Pinter's] works respond to the aspirations of the French public, and its taste for an understanding of man and of what is truly universal."[100] Lawrence Pollard observed that "the award for the great playwright underlines how much Mr Pinter is admired in countries like France as a model of the uncompromising radical intellectual."[100]

Pinter and academia[edit]

Some scholars and critics challenge the validity of Pinter's critiques of what he terms "the modes of thinking of those in power" (Merritt, Pinter in Play 171–89; 180) or dissent from his retrospective viewpoints on his own work (Begley; Karwowski; and Quigley).

In his personal political history, however,

Pinter's own "political act" of conscientious objection resulted from being "terribly disturbed as a young man by the Cold War. And McCarthyism.... A profound hypocrisy. 'They' the monsters, 'we' the good. In 1948 the Russian suppression of Eastern Europe was an obvious and brutal fact, but I felt very strongly then and feel as strongly now [1985] that we have an obligation to subject our own actions and attitudes to an equivalent critical and moral scrutiny." (Merritt, Pinter in Play 178)

Scholars agree that Pinter's dramatic rendering of power relations results from such astute "critical and moral scrutiny."[101]

Pinter's aversion to any censorship by "the authorities" is epitomised in Petey's line at the end of The Birthday Party. As the broken-down and reconstituted Stanley is being carted off by the figures of authority Goldberg and McCann, Petey calls out after him, "Stan, don't let them tell you what to do!" "I've lived that line all my damn life. Never more than now," Pinter told Gussow in 1988.[102] The example of Pinter's stalwart opposition to what he termed "the modes of thinking of those in power"—the "brick wall" of the "minds" perpetuating the "status quo" (Merritt, Pinter in Play 180)—infused the "vast political pessimism" that some academic critics may perceive in his artistic work (Grimes 220), its "drowning landscape" of harsh contemporary realities, with some residual "hope for restoring the dignity of man" (Pinter, Art, Truth and Politics 9, 24).

As Pinter's longtime friends the directors and actors David Hugh Jones and Henry Woolf would remind analytically-inclined scholars and dramatic critics, Pinter was a "great comic writer" (Coppa); yet, as Pinter himself said of The Caretaker, his work is only "funny, up to a point"—"beyond that point" it "ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point" that he wrote it:

The trap with Harold’s work, for performers and audiences, is to approach it too earnestly or portentously. I have always tried to interpret his plays with as much humor and humanity as possible. There is always mischief lurking in the darkest corners. The world of The Caretaker is a bleak one, its characters damaged and lonely. But they are all going to survive. And in their dance to that end they show a frenetic vitality and a wry sense of the ridiculous that balance heartache and laughter. Funny, but not too funny. As Pinter wrote, back in 1960 : "As far as I am concerned The Caretaker IS funny, up to a point. Beyond that point, it ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point that I wrote it."[103]

His dramatic conflicts present serious implications for his characters and his audiences, leading to sustained inquiry about "the point" of his work and multiple "critical strategies" for developing interpretations and stylistic analyses of it (Merritt, Pinter in Play).

On 9 October 2008, the Central School of Speech and Drama announced that Pinter had agreed to become its president and to receive an honorary fellowship in the School's graduation ceremony on 10 December 2008 ("Central Announces"). On his appointment Pinter commented: "I was a student at Central in 1950–51. I enjoyed my time there very much and I am delighted to become president of a remarkable institution" (Smith, "Pinter Replaces"). But Pinter had to receive that honorary degree, his 20th, in absentia, due to ill health ("2008 Central School").[104] His presidency of the School was brief, as he died just two weeks after the graduation ceremony, on 24 December 2008.

Archive[edit]

Pinter's unpublished manuscripts and letters to and from him are held in the Modern Literary Manuscripts division of the British Library (BL), where the catalogued expanded Harold Pinter Archive acquired in December 2007 reopened on 2 February 2009 (O'Brien). Smaller collections of Pinter manuscripts are in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin[105]; The Lilly Library, at Indiana University at Bloomington; the Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, at the University of California, San Diego; the British Film Institute, in London, England; the Margaret Herrick Library, Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in Beverly Hills, California; and in other public and private libraries.[106]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c New York Times obituary, "Harold Pinter, Playwright of the Pause, Dies at 78", by Gussow and Brantley, and the obituary published in the Telegraph, entitled "Harold Pinter: One of the Most Influential British Playwrights of Modern Times"; cf. Adams; Billington's Guardian obituary, "Harold Pinter"; and Dodds. These and other critical appraisals of Pinter's cultural influence, accounts of his death and funeral, and memorial tributes, are listed in Obituaries and related articles.
  2. ^ a b See Pinter's memoir of this experience, his tribute to Irish actor and stage impresario Anew (Mac) McMaster, in "Mac", Various Voices (2008) 36–43. Cf. Niall Mathews, "Anew McMaster, Actor and Impresario", irishtimes.com, Letter to the Editor, The Irish Times, 7 July 2008, Web, 22 June 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Acting" and "Directing" sections of HaroldPinter.org, compiled by Mark Batty, provide details of Pinter's extensive career as an actor and director.
  4. ^ a b Cf. "Biographical Sketch" (1999), in Harold Pinter: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (1960–1980), Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
  5. ^ a b c See Billington," 'I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?' "; cf. Billington, Harold Pinter 395.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Cf. Lyall, "Still Pinteresque".
  7. ^ a b c See "Biobibliographical Notes" (including secondary sources of works cited in its attached bibliography); Billington, Harold Pinter; Merritt, Pinter in Play; and Grimes.
  8. ^ a b c d Billington, Introd., "Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics," Europe Theatre Prize–X Edition, Turin, 10–12 Mar. 2006. Cf. Billington, "Memory Man" and " 'Let's Keep Fighting' " (chap. 29 and "Afterword"), Harold Pinter 388–94 & 395–430, resp.
  9. ^ Merritt, Pinter in Play xi–xxv, 170–209, 174–75; Billington, Harold Pinter 286–338; and Grimes 19.
  10. ^ See "Biobibliographical Notes", a section of the "Bio-bibliography" for "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005."
  11. ^ See Bensky; Gussow, Conversations; and Wark's interview of Pinter televised on Newsnight Review on 23 June 2006.
  12. ^ a b See Billington, "Goodnight, Sweet Prince", "Friends", and Jamieson, "Nobel Laureate Playwright Harold Pinter Dies", as listed in Obituaries and related articles.
  13. ^ Harold Pinter, qtd. in Gussow, Conversations with Pinter 103; Billington, Harold Pinter 1–2.
  14. ^ a b See Billington, Harold Pinter on Pinter's earliest poetry and short prose (29–35), his acting in school plays as a teenager (13–14), and his David Baron years (3, 47–48ff.).
  15. ^ For some widely-divergent accounts of the impact and significance of Pinter's Jewish background, of his "rejection" of it, and of his (inherited) "religious scepticism" and secularism on his life and work, see Billington, Harold Pinter 2, 40–41, 53–54, 79–81, 163–64, 177, 286, 390, 429 (as listed in Official authorised biography) and Woolf (as listed in Other secondary sources and as qtd. in Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 144–45, also listed there); and Alderman and H. Jacobson (as listed in Obituaries and related articles).
  16. ^ Billington draws upon B. S. Johnson, "Evacuees" (1968; published 1994), which includes Pinter's own account.
  17. ^ See Pinter, Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008, 3rd ed. (London: Faber, 2009): " 'Various Voices' is the only collection of Harold Pinter's prose, poems and political writing to span his career. This new edition includes a remarkable interview in which he reflects on his time as an evacuee in Cornwall during the Second World War, as well as new prose, poems and his Nobel Lecture" (back cover).
  18. ^ A special collection of Pinter's correspondence with Brearley is held in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library (Brown, "British Library's £1.1m Saves Pinter's Papers for Nation" and Howard, "British Library Acquires Pinter Papers"). Documenting the importance of Brearley's influence throughout Pinter's life and work, his memorial epistolary poem "Joseph Brearley 1909–1977 (Teacher of English)" appears in Pinter's collection Various Voices (2008); it ends with the following stanza: "You're gone. I'm at your side,/Walking with you from Clapton Pond to Finsbury Park,/And on, and on" (177).
  19. ^ a b See also "Introduction by Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate", 7–9 in 'Fortune's Fool': The Man Who Taught Harold Pinter: A Life of Joe Brearley (2008), ed. G. L. Watkins.
  20. ^ In "Romeo", in the British Library Harold Pinter Archive Blog, Jamie Andrews, curator of The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library, has reprinted a first-hand account of Pinter's 1948 Hackney Downs School performance as Romeo sent to him by its author, Binnie Yeates (Yankovitch), a contemporary of Pinter's who acted alongside him in rehearsals and on stage and who was a schoolmate at its sister girls' school, Dalston County Secondary School (DCSS), which had co-produced the production starring Pinter as Romeo and Betty Lemon as Juliet, directed by Joseph Brearley.
  21. ^ Editorial interpolations within brackets are based on bibliographical information compiled by Baker and Ross 127–28.
  22. ^ a b Cf. Baker, "Growing Up," chap. 1 of Harold Pinter 2–23.
  23. ^ The section on the "Gaieties Cricket Club" (hyperlinked as "Cricket") is directly accessible from the main lefthand menu of the home and index page of HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], Web, 26 Apr. 2009.
  24. ^ a b c In "Portrait of Harold Pinter Playing Cricket to Be Sold at Auction", as published in the Times (24 Mar. 2009), citing "the actor and Pinter's cricketing colleague" Harry Burton, Adam Sherwin reports that the portrait "is to be auctioned before a celebratory game at Lord's" being planned by Pinter's friends to take place on 27 Sept. 2009 between the Gaieties and the Lord's Taverners in order "to raise funds for disadvantaged kids in Hackney". (For more current information about this memorial event, see below.)
  25. ^ a b c "Upcoming Events for the Year 2009", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], Web, 26 Apr. 2009: The auction is "to raise money for the cricket charity The Lords Taverners". [Includes hyperlinks to a JPG photograph of the portrait, to the e-mail address for bidding, and to additional information.] (For further information about Pinter and cricket, see above and the section dedicated to "Cricket" on Pinter's official website.)
  26. ^ Cf. "News: Win an Exclusive Harold Pinter Portrait", Lord's Taverners, Lord's Taverners, 23 Mar. 2009, Web, 26 Apr. 2009.
  27. ^ This essay was accessible via "listen again" on the BBC Radio Player for 7 days after its broadcast; "Harold Pinter & Cricket" is linked on his Matahari Films website accessible via "Win an Exclusive Harold Pinter Portrait", Lord's Taverners, News, 23 Mar. 2009, Web, 26 Apr. 2009; hyperlinked in "Upcoming Events for the Year 2009", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], Web, 26 Apr. 2009.
  28. ^ See, e.g. Gussow, Conversations with Pinter 25–30; Billington, Harold Pinter 7–16; Merritt, Pinter in Play 194.
  29. ^ Cf. Henry Woolf's reminiscences of his friendship with Pinter as one of the "Hackney gang" in "My Sixty Years in Harold's Gang", published in the Guardian on 12 July 2007: "As a schoolboy, Harold Pinter took on bullies and fought with fascists. Later, as a playwright, he took on the entire critical establishment. Henry Woolf, who is appearing in a revival of The Hothouse, relives his lifelong friendship with the writer."
  30. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 20–25, 31–35; and Batty, About Pinter 7.
  31. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 37 and Batty, About Pinter 8; cf. Batty, "Chronology" (xiii-xvi) and chap. 1 "East End to West End" (1-11), in About Pinter.
  32. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 31, 36, 38; and Batty, About Pinter xiii, 8.
  33. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 20–25; 31, 36, 37–41.
  34. ^ Pinter's paternal "grandmother's maiden name was Baron ... he adopted it as his stage-name ... [and] used it [Baron] for the autobiographical character of Mark in the first draft of [his novel] The Dwarfs" (Billington, Harold Pinter 3, 47–48).
  35. ^ a b c For full details, see Pinter's official webpage in the "Acting" section, compiled by Mark Batty (Mark Taylor-Batty), including a photograph of "Harold Pinter Alias David Baron" in the index webpage, "The Harold Pinter Acting Career", and other information compiled by Batty in "Work in Various Repertory Companies 1954–1958", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000[–2009], Web, 23 June 2009. A full list of Pinter's roles during this period is hyperlinked there. The photographs and other images that Batty chose as illustrations for these webpages all came from Harold Pinter's personal archive, now part of the photograph albums and scrapbooks deposited in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library (BL) and still subject to Pinter's ongoing copyright protecting it, as controlled by his estate. For further information relating to the BL's procedures and permission requests pertaining to use of any of these materials, see "Manuscript Collections: Copyright Guidance".
  36. ^ Cited in Billington, Harold Pinter 49–55.
  37. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 20–25, 31, 36, 38.
  38. ^ For an example of such "press fascination," see "People" in the issue of Time published the following week (11 Aug. 1975).
  39. ^ According to her public statement to the press after his death, Antonia Fraser counts their living together as a total of "over 33 years" (1975–2008); she stated to the Guardian: "He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten," as quoted in Walker, Smith and Siddique, and other news accounts following Pinter's death.
  40. ^ See also the pathologist's report cited in the AP news account entitled "Death of Vivien Merchant Is Ascribed to Alcoholism", published in the New York Times on 7 Oct. 1982.
  41. ^ See, e.g., Adams; Greenhill; "Pinter Ends"; and some other first-hand reports of Pinter's funeral listed in Obituaries and related articles. Some people who did not know either Pinter or his son personally have speculated about the significance of their estrangement; for such an editorial and for such an opinion, see Alderman and Sands.
  42. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 388, 429–30; Dougary; cf. Driscoll, as listed in Obituaries and related articles.
  43. ^ Qtd. in Wark; see Billington, "They said"; cf. Koval, Moss, and Rose.
  44. ^ Discussion of Pinter's "political awareness" pertaining to his political development as a playwright and as a citizen appears in Billington, Harold Pinter 234, 286–305 (Chap. 15: "Public Affairs"), 400–3, 412, 416–17, 423, & 433–41 (a sec. on Pinter's Nobel Lecture, "Art, Truth & Politics", rpt. therein); Merritt, Pinter in Play xi–xii, xiv, 171–209 (Chap. 8: "Cultural Politics," espec. "Pinter and Politics"), 275; and Grimes; in sources that they cite; and in sources published in 1990 and afterward listed in the Swedish Academy's "Bio-bibliography".
  45. ^ Qtd. in Chrisafis and Tilden, "Pinter Blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair".
  46. ^ a b See, e.g., responses to Pinter's winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in contemporaneous articles by Hari, Hitchens, and Pryce-Jones; cf. Allen-Mills, N. Cohen, and Kamm.
  47. ^ See the text of Havel's and others' comments, excerpted and quoted in " 'A Colossal Figure' ", after his essay "Pinter: Torture and Misery in the Name of Freedom", adapted from his 2005 acceptance speech for the Wilfred Owen Award for poetry, rpt. in Independent, Independent News & Media, 16 Oct. 2005, Web, 24 June 2009.
  48. ^ a b c d e "Pinter, Harold" (1930–2008): Film & TV Credits" at BFI's Screenonline.
  49. ^ Pinter's additional stage, film, television, and radio acting and directing credits are listed in the "Biography" section of his official website (not updated to reflect his latest awards or death, as accessed on 11 Mar. 2009).
  50. ^ See full program details listed in "Harold Pinter Festival", HaroldPinter.org.
  51. ^ See also: "Harold Pinter, Director and Playwright at the National Theatre" (MS Word document file), National Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London, n.d., Web, 16 Mar. 2009.
  52. ^ Manuscripts and typescripts of all these screenplays are accessible in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library to qualified researchers.
  53. ^ a b Cf. Emanuel Levy, "Sleuth with Pinter, Branagh, Law and Caine", interview, emanuellevy.com, Emanuel Levy, 29 Aug. 2007, Web, 9 May 2009.
  54. ^ a b Cf. Emanuel Levy, "Sleuth 2007: Remake or Revamping of Old Play", emanuellevy.com, Emanuel Levy, 29 Aug. 2007, Web, 9 May 2009.
  55. ^ a b c d Katie Herdman, Daisy Evans, and Laura Lankester, comps., "Plays", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], Web, 9 May 2009.
  56. ^ "Biography", haroldpinter.org; Gordon, "Chronology", Pinter at Seventy xliii–lxv; Batty, "Chronology", About Pinter xiii–xvi.
  57. ^ Qtd. in Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 147. In the Guardian obituary, Billington refers to the production as "a staggeringly confident debut which attracted the attention of a young producer, Michael Codron, who decided to present Pinter's next play, The Birthday Party, at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1958 …" ("Harold Pinter").
  58. ^ Cited by Merritt in "Sir Harold Hobson: The Promptings of Personal Experience," Pinter in Play 221–25; rpt. in "The Birthday Party – Premiere", HaroldPinter.org. Billington describes its London première as "one of the most famous flops in theatrical history" (Harold Pinter 74) and as "one of the most famous disasters in post-war British theatre" ("Harold Pinter").
  59. ^ Merritt, Pinter in Play 5, 9, 225–26, and 310, citing Lois Gordon, "Pigeonholing Pinter: A Bibliography", Theatre Documentation 1 (Fall 1968): 3–20; chap. 2 in Hinchliffe 38–86, particularly on origins of the term and Campton's own view of Theatre of the Absurd as a prior "pigeon-hole" (40).
  60. ^ "Comedy of menace" is also a verbal pun on "Comedy of manners", with menace being manners said with a Judeo-English accent. See Merritt, Pinter in Play 9, 225–26, 240–41; Diamond.
  61. ^ See Billington, Harold Pinter 64, 65, 84, 197, 251, & 354; cf. Wark's interview of Pinter, televised on Newsnight on 23 June 2006.
  62. ^ For a "Chronology" of Pinter's career, see Baker and Ross, "Chronology" xxiii–xl, drawn upon throughout this article.
  63. ^ See discussions of these plays throughout Batty; Grimes; and Baker.
  64. ^ Merritt, Pinter in Play xi–xv, 170–209; cf. Grimes 19.
  65. ^ Qtd. in "The Hothouse – Premiere", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–2009, Web, 9 May 2009.
  66. ^ See Merritt, "Pinter Playing Pinter" and Grimes 16, 36–38, 61–71, and throughout.
  67. ^ a b "The New World Order", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], World Wide Web, 8 May 2009. Cushman's performance review is reprinted here. Though listed among the "plays" and not among the "sketches" in the "Plays" section of HaroldPinter.org, The New World Order is identified as a sketch both in its illustrated 1991 American Theatre "poster" and in published criticism.
  68. ^ Party Time is published in the U.S. edition along with The New World Order (Grove, 1993); for extended critical discussions of both works, see Grimes 101–28 and 139–43.
  69. ^ For bibliographical details, see Baker and Ross 100–102; cf. their "Chronology" xxxvii; for critical discussion, see Grimes 101–16, 120–29, and throughout.
  70. ^ Merritt, "Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes: Political/Personal Echoes of the Holocaust"; cf. Grimes 195–220.
  71. ^ Ben Brantley, "Pinter's Silences, Richly Eloquent", New York Times, New York Times Company, 27 July 2001, rpt. in "Lincoln Center Festival, New York, 2001", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009], Web, 9 May 2009.
  72. ^ "Sketches", HaroldPinter.org, Harold Pinter, 2000–2009, Web, 9 May 2009; cf. Alastair Macaulay, "The Playwright's Triple Risk: Pinter Sketches - Royal National Theatre," rpt. from Financial Times, 13 Feb. 2002.
  73. ^ Their stage adaptation of his unfilmed 1972 work The Proust Screenplay, based on Marcel Proust's famous seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time, opened at the Cottesloe Theatre (NT) on 27 November 2000, running at the NT through 7 February 2001.
  74. ^ Reports and reviews of the 2001 Lincoln Center Pinter Festival productions and symposia, The Pinter Review (2002); Merritt, "Talking about Pinter". See also BWW News Desk.
  75. ^ For news accounts, see "Harold Pinter Added to IFOA Lineup" (via Internet Archive) and "Travel Advisory".
  76. ^ See Koval's interviews with Pinter at the Edinburgh Book Festival; cf. Billington, Harold Pinter 413–16.
  77. ^ The various drafts of these works are catalogued in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library (Manuscripts Catalogue no. Add MS 88880 / 2). For "Full description" with itemized lists of contents, one must first "Find a specific manuscript (by number)" in the BL Manuscripts Catalogue and then select "Descriptions hierarchy".
  78. ^ "PinterFest, Manitoba Theatre Center, 2003", in HaroldPinter.org.
  79. ^ Cf. PinterFest, as listed in Merritt, "Forthcoming Publications, Upcoming Productions, and Other Works in Progress" in "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2000–2002", Pinter Rev. (2004): 299.
  80. ^ Harold Pinter to Professor Avraham Oz, "one of Israel's leading internal opponents of authoritarianism," in a letter of 2005, as qtd. in Billington, Harold Pinter 395, 430.
  81. ^ a b For further details (mostly in Italian, with some information provided in English), see "Event" section for "Harold Pinter" on the official website of the Europe Theatre Prize, 10th edition.
  82. ^ Pinter, as qtd. in Robinson; for a further perspective, see Toíbín.
  83. ^ Billington's "4 Stars" review, "Krapp's Last Tape", appeared in the Theatre section of the Guardian; cf. his subsequent discussion in Harold Pinter 429–30.
  84. ^ Royal Court Theatre box office production announcement for Krapp's Last Tape, as well as "Upcoming events for the year 2006", on the home page of HaroldPinter.org (since updated).
  85. ^ For further information, see Sheffield Theatres press release "Sheffield Theatres Presents Pinter: A Celebration".
  86. ^ Other recent and "upcoming events" (updated periodically) are listed on the home page of Pinter's official website and through its menu of links to the "Calendar" ("Worldwide Calendar").
  87. ^ Parts of this passage are quoted in "West End Pays Tribute to Pinter"; in Billington, "Goodnight, Sweet Prince"; and in other accounts listed in Obituaries and related articles. It was reproduced in full as a memorial to Harold Pinter on the home page of The Harold Pinter Society (updated 1 Jan. 2009). [Note: The three dots are features of Pinter's text, not ellipses.]
  88. ^ See Billington, "Goodnight, Sweet Prince"; cf. Adams, "Friends", "Pinter Ends", and other accounts of Pinter's funeral listed in Obituaries and related articles.
  89. ^ For announcements, see Morgan, Westwood, and the Sydney Festival 2009 official Website, which quotes both the public statement by Blanchett and Upton and Colgan's following comment: "In early December, I talked with Harold about a forthcoming meeting with Sydney Theatre Company and the possibility of the Gate and STC working together, which he was very pleased about. It is with great sadness but it gives me great pride that these two theatres can come together at the end of the Festival to remember this extraordinary writer."
  90. ^ For details of the tribute curated by Colgan, including his introductory remarks, see McCallum, "Companies Recall Good Ghost of Pinter", as listed in Obituaries and related articles: Niall Buggy "read the speech from No Man's Land" (qtd. above), in which Hirst says, "Allow the love of the good ghost," the source for the phrase "good ghost of Pinter" in McCallum's title. For further information about McCallum, see his "Author Profile" at Currency Press, publisher of his book Belonging: Australian Playwriting in the 20th Century (2009).
  91. ^ Abbott's press release includes links for further "information on the Clapton Cinema campaign." See also Lafferty.
  92. ^ a b "Events: PEN World Voices Festival: Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration: Updated Schedule", PEN World Voices Festival: The New York Festival of International Literature, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), Web, 11 Apr. 2009; cf. listing for "May 2, 2009: Tribute to Harold Pinter", "The Fifth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, April 27 – May 3, 2009", PEN American Center (pen.org), PEN American Center, Web, 12 Apr. 2009; BWW News Desk, "PEN World Voices Festival Presents A Tribute to Harold Pinter", Broadway World News, BroadwayWorld.com, 29 Apr. 2009, Web, 5 May 2009. (Audio for the event may become accessible online from the "Tributes" section of the PEN American Center website at some future time.)
  93. ^ "Harold Pinter: A Celebration", NT News and Information, National Theatre, 8 May 2009, Web, 8 May 2009.
  94. ^ A five-star review of this sold-out event entitled "Harold Pinter: A Celebration, National Theatre, London: Some Pauses to Remember", by Michael Coveney, was published in The Independent on Tuesday, 9 June 2009.
  95. ^ The invitation and related information is reprinted on the website of Tracey Moberly, an artist whose collaborative installation with Danny Pockets was on display at the event; see Tracey Moberly, "Hackney Empire: Pinter Residency Launch", sanderswood.com, Festivals and events, 16 June 2009, Web, 19 June 2009.
  96. ^ a b See report by Louise Jury, "Harold Pinter Honoured by Hackney Empire", This Is London, London Evening Standard, 17 June 2009, Web, 18 June 2009.
  97. ^ Jan Woolf, "Writing" and "Theatre", Rootball.org.uk, Rootball Productions, 2009, Web, 22 June 2009.
  98. ^ For an example of an illustrated contemporaneous news account, see Lyall, "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S", which appeared in both the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times Company, 8 Dec. 2009, Web, 9 May 2009 [enlargeable photograph]; other national newspapers featured similar photographs of the audience watching these screens.
  99. ^ Pinter, Art, Truth and Politics 21. Pinter's "Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics" (text and streaming media) is accessible on the official website of the Nobel Prize, nobelprize.org in the original English, with hyperlinked translations into French, German, and Swedish. (Page references throughout are to the Faber ed., Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture.) Cf. Pinter's Nov. 2002 Turin speech, rpt. in "Harold Pinter," in The Artists Network of Refuse & Resist!, and in Pinter, Various Voices (2005) 243. For analysis of such contexts and related perspectives on Pinter's Nobel Lecture, see Merritt, "(Anti-)Global Pinter."
  100. ^ a b French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in his speech qtd. by the French Embassy (UK) in its official press release, "Légion d'Honneur for Harold Pinter"; cf. "French PM Honours Harold Pinter", as reported by BBC News.
  101. ^ Cf., e.g., Batty, "Preface" and chap. 6–9 in About Pinter; Grimes 19, 36–71, 218–20, and throughout.
  102. ^ Qtd. in Merritt, Pinter in Play 179.
  103. ^ Qtd. in "Travels with Harold", an account of staging the play for the Roundabout Theatre Company, in New York City, published by director David Hugh Jones in the Fall 2003 issue of Front & Center Online, the "online version of the Roundabout Theatre Company's subscriber magazine"; cf. Woolf, as qtd. in Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 147–48.
  104. ^ See "Degree Honour for Playwright Pinter" and other news accounts citing the Central School of Speech and Drama.
  105. ^ Harold Pinter: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (1960–1980), Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
  106. ^ See Baker and Ross, "Appendix One" 224 and Merritt, "Harold Pinter Bibliography," cited in Baker and Ross.

Works cited and further reading[edit]

[For individual works by Pinter and related stage productions cited, see their classified entries listed in Bibliography for Harold Pinter.]

Bio-bibliography[edit]

Baker, William, and John C. Ross, comps. Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History. London: The British Library and New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll P, 2005. ISBN 1584561564 (10). ISBN 9781584561569 (13). Print. "Oak Knoll Press Bestsellers", "[http://www.oakknoll.com/resources/pdfcatalogues/Cat2007Spring_web.pdf Spring – Summer 2007 Catalogue]" (PDF). {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)Spring – Summer 2007 Catalogue (9.25 MB). Oak Knoll Press, 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Page 37 of 40 pages.)

"Biobibliographical Notes" and "Bibliography" for "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005." In "Bio-bibliography". By The Swedish Academy. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005. nobelprize.org. The Swedish Academy and The Nobel Foundation, Oct. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. (English HTML version.) [Additional PDF versions accessible in English, French, German, and Swedish via hyperlinks.]

Harold Pinter: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (1960–1980). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1999. Web. 5 Apr. 2009.

"Links: Libraries and Academia" and "Publications": "Works By" and "Works About" Pinter. haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009]. Web. 18 Apr. 2009.

Merritt, Susan Hollis, comp. "Harold Pinter Bibliography". SusanHollisMerritt.org. Susan Hollis Merritt, 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2009. (Webpage pertaining to the "Harold Pinter Bibliography" published in The Pinter Review. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1987– .)

–––. "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2000–2002." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 242–300. Print.

–––. "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2002–2004 With a Special Supplement on the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, October 2005 – May 2006." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 261–343. Print.

The Pinter Review. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1987– ). Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. [Table of contents of past issues, retyped on index Webpage; occasional typographical variations.]

The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. ISBN 9781879852198 (hardcover). ISBN 9781879852204 (softcover). ISSN 08959706 Parameter error in {{issn}}: Invalid ISSN.. Print.

The Swedish Academy. "Bio-bibliography: Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005". NobelPrize.org. The Swedish Academy and The Nobel Foundation, 2005. Web. 5 Jan. 2009. (Contains both "Biobibliographical Notes" and ""Bibliography", with the latter hyperlinked separately in site menu.)

Selected multimedia resources[edit]

BWW News Desk. "Photo Flash: No Man's Land at the Duke of York....Photos by Jeremy Whelehan". BroadwayWorld.com. Broadway World, 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Dec. 2008.

Celebration (2000). More 4. Channel Four, London. Television. Channel 4, 26 Feb. 2007. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. (Includes video clips of filmed stage prod.; first broadcast Feb. 2007.)

Harold Pinter: Art, Truth & Politics: The Nobel Prize Lecture. © Copyright 2006 Illuminations. All Rights Reserved. Transmission Channel 4, 2005. DVD. 46 mins. (DVD and VHS video recordings. Catalogue listing.) 2 Oct. 2007. [Features preview video clip.]

Selected interviews[edit]

Batty, Mark. "Pinter Views: Pinter on Pinter." 79–153 (chap. 8) in Batty, About Pinter. Print.

Bensky, Lawrence M. "The Art of Theatre No. 3: Harold Pinter". Paris Rev. 10.39 (Fall 1966): 12–37. Print. Excerpt from archived contents of journal; hyperlinked ""The Art of Theatre No. 3: Harold Pinter"" (PDF). (280 KB). Paris Review. Paris Review Foundation, Inc., 2004. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [A frequently-cited source of Pinter's early views.]

Billington, Michael. " 'I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?' " Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 17 Mar. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Transcript.

–––, comp. " 'They said you've a call from the Nobel committee. I said, why?': Harold Pinter in His Own Words". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 14 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Bull, Andy. "Playwright Harold Pinter's Last Interview Reveals His Childhood Love of Cricket and Why It Is Better Than Sex". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 Mar. 2009.

Burton, Harry. "Harold Pinter - Interview (MP3, 47mins, 19MB)" (Golden Generation conference podcast). British Library Online Gallery: What's On. British Library, 8 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. Downloadable MP3 podcast. ["Harold Pinter shares his memories of postwar British theatre with actor and director Harry Burton." Introduced by Jamie Andrews (Head, Modern Literary Manuscripts, British Library) and recorded at the Golden Generation conference, held at the British Library on 8–9 Sept. 2008.]

Gussow, Mel. Conversations with Pinter. London: Nick Hern Books, 1994. ISBN 1854592017. Rpt. New York: Limelight, 2004. ISBN 0879101792. Print.

Hern, Nicholas, and Harold Pinter. "A Play and Its Politics: A Conversation between Harold Pinter and Nicholas Hern." February 1985. 5–23 in Pinter, One for the Road. Print.

Johnson, B. S. "Evacuees" (1968). The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 8-13. Print.

Jones, Rebecca, and Harold Pinter. Interview. Today. BBC Radio 4 BBC, 12 May 2008. Web. 7 Apr. 2009. (Streaming audio [excerpts], BBC Radio Player; "extended interview" audio RealAudio Media [.ram] clip ["PINTER20080513"]. Duration of shorter, broadcast version: 3 mins., 56 secs.; duration of the extended interview: 10 mins., 19 secs.) [Interview with Pinter conducted by Jones on the occasion of the 50th anniversary revival of The Birthday Party at the Lyric Hammersmith, London; BBC Radio Player version was accessible for a week after first broadcast in "Listen again" on the Today website.]

Koval, Ramona. "Harold Pinter". Books and Writing with Ramona Koval. ABC Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 Sept. 2002. Conducted at Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug. 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Radio. Transcript.

–––. "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-Winning Playwright and Poet, at Edinburgh International Book Festival (transcript available)." Edinburgh, Scotland, 25 Aug. 2006. The Book Show. ABC Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 25 Sept. 2006. Web. 26 Sept. 2006. Radio. Transcript. (Downloadable MP3 audio file and printable transcript.) [Audio file includes Pinter's dramatic reading of a scene from his play The Birthday Party.]

Lawson, Mark. "Pinter 'to give up writing plays' ". Inc. "Pinter on Front Row". Broadcast on BBC Radio 4. BBC News, 28 Feb. 2005 (last updated). Web. 11 Nov. 2006 & 2 Oct. 2007. Radio. (RealPlayer audio.)

Lyall, Sarah. "Still Pinteresque". New York Times 7 Oct. 2007, sec. 2 ("Arts & Leisure"): 1, 16; illus. Print. New York Times, Movies. New York Times Company, 7 Oct. 2007. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Feature article which previews Sleuth; includes comments from Lyall's interview with Pinter and the hyperlinked film trailer.]

Riddell, Mary. "The New Statesman Interview: Harold Pinter". New Statesman. New Statesman, 8 Nov. 1999. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Includes audio clip.]

Rose, Charlie. "An Appreciation of Harold Pinter". The Charlie Rose Show. WNET, New York, 2 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. [Rebroadcast of "A Conversation with Harold Pinter" (filmed at the Old Vic Theatre and first broadcast on 1 Mar. 2007). Introduced as "An appreciation of English dramatist, actor and theater director Harold Pinter who died on December 24, 2008" ("In memoriam"). (52 mins., 52 secs.; buffered).]

–––. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter." Charlie Rose. PBS. WNET, New York, 19 July 2001. Television. [First broadcast on 19 July 2001 from 11:00 p.m. EST to 12:00 a.m. EST; also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. (58 mins.).] Video clip (57 mins., 47 secs.). Google Video. Google, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2007 & 3 Jan. 2009.

–––. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter" (Filmed at the Old Vic, London). Charlie Rose. PBS. WNET, New York, 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 1 Mar. 2007. Television. [First broadcast on 1 Mar. 2007 from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET; also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. PBS. WXXI-TV, Rochester, New York, 1 Mar. 2007. Broadcast from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET. (52 mins., 21 secs.) Full-length streaming video accessible directly from the show's Website. Rebroadcast as "An Appreciation of Harold Pinter" (See above).]

Wark, Kirsty. "Harold Pinter on Newsnight Review". BBC News. BBC, 23 June 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. ["Kirsty Wark introduces her interview with Harold Pinter, which aired on Newsnight Review, Friday 23 June, at 11pm on BBC TWO." (See below).]

–––. "Interviews: Nobel Prize Winning Playwright Harold Pinter Talks to Kirsty Wark". Newsnight Review. BBC Two, London, 23 June 2006. Television. BBC News. BBC, 25 June 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. RealPlayer streaming video. (See above.)

Official authorised biography[edit]

Billington, Michael. Harold Pinter. London: Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). Updated 2nd ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. 1996. London: Faber, 1997. ISBN 0571171036 (10). Print.

Other selected secondary sources[edit]

Agencies. " 'The foremost representative of British drama': Excerpts from the Swedish Academy's Citation Awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature to British Playwright Harold Pinter." Guardian, Culture: Books. Guardian Media Group, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. (Previously part of "Special Reports: The Nobel Prize for Literature" in 2005.)

Allen-Mills, Tony. "This Pinter Guy Could Turn Into a Pain". Times Online. News International, 6 Nov. 2005. Web. 15 Mar. 2009. ["Belatedly, Americans are wising up to a Nobel menace, says Tony Allen-Mills."]

Anderson, Porter. "Harold Pinter: Theater's Angry Old Man: At the Prize of Europe, the Playwright Is All Politics." CNN.com. CNN, 17 Mar. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Baker, William. Harold Pinter. Writers' Lives Series. London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN 0826499708 (10) (hardback). ISBN 9780826499707 (13) (hardback). ISBN 0826499716 (10) (paperback). ISBN 9780826499714 (13) (paperback). Print.

Batiukov, Michael. "Belarus 'Free Theatre' Is Under Attack by Militia in Minsk, Belarus". American Chronicle. Ultio, LLC, 22 Aug. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Batty, Mark. About Pinter: The Playwright and the Work. London: Faber, 2005. ISBN 0571220053 (10). ISBN 9780571220052 (13). Print. [Includes chap. 9, "Views on Pinter: Friends and Collaborators" on 155–221.]

Begley, Varun. Harold Pinter and the Twilight of Modernism. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2005. ISBN 0802038875 (10). ISBN 9780802038876 (13). Print.

Billington, Michael. "The Importance of Being Pinter: A New Production by the Belarus Free Theatre Reinforces the Global Resonance of the British Playwright's Political Works." Guardian, Arts blog – Theatre. Guardian Media Group, 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 16 April 2007.

–––. "Krapp's Last Tape: 4 Stars Royal Court, London". Guardian, Theatre. Guardian Media Group, 16 Oct. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

–––. "Passionate Pinter's Devastating Assault On US Foreign Policy: Shades of Beckett As Ailing Playwright Delivers Powerful Nobel Lecture." Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 8 Dec. 2005, Books. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

–––. "We Are Catching Up With This Man's Creative Talent At Last". Guardian, Comment. Guardian Media Group, 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2007. ["The current rash of Pinter revivals is about far more than guilt or respect. Both artistically and politically, he was ahead of the pack."]

Bond, Paul. "Harold Pinter's Artistic Achievement". World Socialist Web Site. World Socialist Web Site, 29 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Brantley, Ben. "Harold Pinter". New York Times, Times Topics . New York Times Company, 2009 (updated periodically). Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Introd. to hyperlinked Harold Pinter News––New York Times; includes menu of recommended external links.]

–––. "A Master of Menace." (Audio file.) (See "Multimedia resources" listed below.)

Brown, Mark. "What Is It (War) Good for?" Socialist Review. Socialist Review, Sept. 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Book rev. of War, by Harold Pinter.]

"Bush and Blair Slated by Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 7 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Features related links.)

The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. ISBN 052165842X (10). ISBN 9780521658423 (13). Print. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 11 October 2007. [Hyperlinked table of contents.]

Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD). "Central Announces New President". Press release. Central School of Speech and Drama. University of London, 9 Oct. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2008.

–––. "Central's 2008 Graduation Ceremony: Honorary Fellowships for Harold Pinter, Jo Brand and Penny Francis." Press release. Central School of Speech and Drama. University of London, 12 Dec. 2008. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

Chrisafis, Angelique, and Imogen Tilden. "Pinter Blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 11 June 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Coppa, Francesca. "The Sacred Joke: Comedy and Politics in Pinter's Early Plays." 44–56 in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2009. [Extract; registered account required for access to full text.]

"Death of Vivien Merchant Is Ascribed to Alcoholism". New York Times. New York Times Company, 7 Oct. 1982. Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

"Degree Honour for Playwright Pinter". AOL.co.uk. AOL (UK), 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2009. [Cites Central School of Speech and Drama.]

Dougary, Ginny. "Lady Antonia Fraser's Life Less Ordinary: In a Frank Interview, the Famed Writer Talks about Motherhood, Catholicism, Her Parents and Soulmate Harold Pinter." Times Online. News International (News Corporation), 5 July 2008. Web. 5 July 2008.

Eden, Richard, and Tim Walker. "Mandrake: A Pinteresque Silence". Sunday Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/27/nosplit/dp2701.xml> (original URL). Bookrags: HighBeam Research. Cengage Learning (Gale), 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 16 Mar. 2009. (Free trial for non-subscribers).

Ferguson, Niall. "Personal View: Do the Sums, Then Compare US and Communist Crimes from the Cold War". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Dec. 2005. Web. 9 May 2009.

French Embassy in the United Kingdom. "Harold Pinter Awarded Légion d'Honneur". France in the United Kingdom. French Embassy (UK), 17 Jan. 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. (Press release.)

"French PM Honours Harold Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 18 Jan. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Grimes, Charles. Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison & Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; Cranbury, NJ: Associated UP, 2005. ISBN 0838640508. Print.

Gussow, Mel. "Critic's Notebook: On the London Stage, a Feast of Revenge, Menace and Guilt." New York Times. New York Times Company, 31 July 1991. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Site registration may be required.)

Hadley, Kathryn. "Forward to Freedom". History Today News, History in the News. History Today Magazine, 15 June 2009. Web. 25 June 2009.

Hari, Johann. "Johann Hari: Pinter Does Not Deserve the Nobel Prize: The Only Response to His Nobel Rant (and Does Anyone Doubt It Will Be a Rant?) Will Be a Long, Long Pause" (column). Independent, Comment. Independent News & Media, 6 Dec. 2005. Johann Hari, 2 Oct. 2007. Web. 12 Oct. 2007. (Archived in johannhari.com.)

"Harold Pinter Added to IFOA Lineup". Press release. International Festival of Authors (IFOA), Toronto, 1 Oct. 2001. Web. 1 Oct. 2001. "Harold Pinter Added to IFOA Lineup". Archived IFOA press release. The Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine. Web. 4 Oct. 2007.

"Harold Pinter Taken to Hospital". BBC News. BBC, 30 Nov. 2005. Web. 7 May 2009.

Hitchens, Christopher. "Opinion: The Sinister Mediocrity of Harold Pinter". Wall Street Jour. 17 Oct. 2005, A18. Print. Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company), 17 Oct. 2005. Web. 7 May 2009. [Electronic ed.; printable version "for personal, non-commercial use only."]

Hobson, Harold. "The Screw Turns Again." Sunday Times 25 May 1958: 11. Print. (Cited in Merritt, Pinter in Play.) Rpt. in The Birthday Party. HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. (See also "Stage productions" listed above.)

Hodgson, Martin. "British Jews Break Away from 'pro-Israeli' Board of Deputies". Independent. Independent News & Media, 5 Feb. 2007. World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Honigsbaum, Mark. "Publisher to Stand In for Pinter at Nobel Ceremony". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 24 Nov. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Howard, Jennifer. "Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to Harold Pinter, British Playwright Widely Studied in Academe". Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 Oct. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Jones, David. "Travels with Harold". Front & Center Online ("The Online Version of Roundabout Theatre Company's Subscriber Magazine"). Roundabout Theatre Company, Fall 2003. Web. 9 Oct. 2007. (3 pages.) ["David Jones' Staging of The Caretaker for Roundabout Culminates a 40-Year Career Acting and Directing the Work of Harold Pinter. Here the Director Looks Back."]

"Letter of Motivation for the European Theatre Prize". 10th Edition of the Europe Theatre Prize to Harold Pinter ("X Premio Europa per il teatro a Harold Pinter"). premio-europa.org. Europe Theatre Prize, Turin, Italy, 8–12 Mar. 2006. Web. 10 Mar. 2009.

Lyall, Sarah. "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S." New York Times. New York Times Company, 8 Dec. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Correction appended 10 Dec. 2005: "An article on Thursday about the playwright Harold Pinter's criticism of American foreign policy in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for literature described it incompletely. He said that both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair - and not just Prime Minister Blair - should be tried before the International Criminal Court of Justice for the invasion of Iraq."]

Mbeki, Thabo. "Letter from the President: Hail the Nobel Laureates - Apostles of Human Curiosity!". ANC Today ("Online Voice of the African National Congress") 5.42 (21–27 Oct. 2005). African National Congress, 12 Nov. 2007. Web.

[McDowell, Leslie.] "Book Festival Reviews: Pinter at 75: The Anger Still Burns: Harold Pinter". The Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 5. Print. The Scotsman Publications Limited (Johnston Press Plc), (updated) 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Merritt, Susan Hollis. "(Anti-)Global Pinter." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 140–67. Print.

–––. "Europe Theatre Prize Celebration -- Turin, Italy." Harold Pinter Society Newsletter, Fall 2006. Web. (Downloadable electronic document sent to members.)

–––. Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter. 1990. Durham and London: Duke UP, 1995. ISBN 0822316749 (10). ISBN 9780822316749 (13). Print.

–––. "Talking about Pinter." (On the Lincoln Center Festival 2001: Harold Pinter Festival Symposia.) The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2001 and 2002. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2002. 144–67. Print.

Moss, Stephen. "The Guardian Profile: Harold Pinter: Under the Volcano". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 4 Sept. 1999. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"The Nobel Prize for Literature 2005: Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, [2005–2009]. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. (Index of articles; some part of "Special Reports: The Nobel Prize for Literature" in 2005.)

"People". Time . Time Inc., 11 Aug. 1975. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Archived in the Time Archive: 1923 to the Present.] (Page 1 of 2 pages.)

"Pinter Honoured for a Lifetime's Contribution to the Arts". University of Leeds press release. University of Leeds, 13 Apr. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2007.

"Pinter Wins Nobel Literary Prize". BBC News . BBC, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"Protesters Will Defy Ban on Anti-Bush Demo on Sunday 15 June". Socialist Worker Online (UK). Socialist Worker, 14 June 2008. Web. 12 June 2008.

Pryce-Jones, David. "Harold Pinter's Special Triteness: Harold Pinter Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature." National Review 7 Nov. 2005. National Review Online (National Review, Inc.), 28 Oct. 2005. Web. 3 Mar. 2009. Rpt. in "News Publications: 2005 Ad". BNET: Business Network. FindArticles (Gale Cengage Learning), 2008. CBS Interactive, Inc., 2009. Web. 7 Mar. 2009. (3 pages.)

Quigley, Austin E. "Pinter, Politics and Postmodernmism (I)." 7–27 in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Print.

Reddy, E.S. "Free Mandela: An Account of the Campaign to Free Nelson Mandela and All Other Political Prisoners in South Africa." African National Congress (ANC): Documents: History of Campaigns. African National Congress, July 1988. Web. 5 Jan. 2009.

Riddell, Mary. "Comment: Prophet without Honour: Harold Pinter Can Be Cantankerous and Puerile. But He Is a Worthy Nobel Prizewinner." Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 11 Dec. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Robinson, David. "Books: Doyle Returns to an Old Favourite in New Work; . . . Harold Pinter". Scotsman, Living. Scotsman, 28 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

–––. "I'm Written Out, Says Controversial Pinter". Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 6. Print. Scotsman, 26 Aug. 2006. Web. 26 Aug. 2006.

Sheffield Theatres. "Latest News: August 2006: Sheffield Theatres Presents Pinter: A Celebration". Press release. Sheffield Theatres, 18 Aug. 2006. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.

Shenton, Mark. "Pinter in Turin". Stage Blogs: Shenton's View. Stage Newspaper Limited, 11 Mar. 2006. Web. 15 Mar. 2009.

Smith, Alastair. "Pinter Replaces Mandelson as Central President". Stage. Stage Newspaper Limited, 14 Oct. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2008.

Smith, Neil. " 'Political element' to Pinter Prize?" BBC News. BBC, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"Special Report: The Nobel Prize for Literature: 2005 Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 2 Oct. 2007. World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Features links relating to Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. [Periodically updated and re-located.])

Swedish Academy. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005: Harold Pinter". Nobelprize.org. Swedish Academy and Nobel Foundation, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. (Hyperlinked account. Provides links to the official Nobel Prize announcement, Bio-bibliography, Bibliography, press release, press conference, and audio and video streaming media files of the press conference and related interviews and features. These resources are accessible on the official websites of both the Nobel Prize (Nobel Foundation) and the Swedish Academy; they are periodically revised and re-located.)

Thomson, David T. Pinter: The Player's Playwright. London: Macmillan, 1985. New York: Schocken, 1985. ISBN 0805239642. Print.

Toíbín, Colm. "Pinter Takes On Beckett". Daily Telegraph. News International, 7 Oct. 2006. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. ("As Harold Pinter prepares to tackle 'Krapp's Last Tape', novelist Colm Toíbín looks forward to a meeting of two theatrical giants.")

Traub, James. "The Way We Live Now: Their Highbrow Hatred of Us". New York Times Mag.. New York Times Company, 30 Oct. 2005. Web. 30 Oct 2005. (Site registration may be required.)

"Travel Advisory: Toronto Festival Honors 14 Leaders in the Arts". New York Times (Archive). New York Times Company, 9 Sept. 2001. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. (Site registration may be required.)

Wardle, Irving. "The Birthday Party." Encore 5 (July–Aug. 1958): 39–40. Rpt. in The Encore Reader: A Chronicle of the New Drama. Ed. Charles Marowitz, Tom Milne, and Owen Hale. London: Methuen, 1965. 76–78. Print. (Reissued as: New Theatre Voices of the Fifties and Sixties. London: Eyre Methuen, 1981.)

–––. "Comedy of Menace." Encore 5 (Sept.–Oct. 1958): 28–33. Rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 86–91. Print.

–––. "Pinter, Harold." 657–58 in The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Ed. John Gassner and Edward Quinn. New York: Crowell, 1969. Print.

–––. "There's Music in That Room." Encore 7 (July–Aug. 1960): 32–34. Rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 129–32. Print.

Wästberg, Per. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005: Presentation Speech". Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Foundation and The Swedish Academy, 10 December 2005. Web, 2 Oct. 2007. (Full text; links to video clips of the Nobel Ceremony provided online.)

West, Samuel. "Fathers and Sons". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 17 Mar. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. ["How does it feel to act in a Pinter play for radio alongside the man himself? Samuel West reveals all."]

Wilfred Owen Association Newsletter 4 Aug. 2004. Print.

Woolf, Henry. "My 60 Years in Harold's Gang". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 12 July 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2007.

Obituaries and related articles[edit]

Abbott, Diane. "Diane Abbott Calls for Pinter Cinema". DianeAbbott.org.uk. Diane Abbott Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (site funded from the Parliamentary Members Communications Allowance), 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009. Press release.

Adams, Stephen. "Harold Pinter Directs His Own Funeral". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. ["His plays were masterpieces of artistic control. And even at his own funeral Harold Pinter made sure he exerted a director's influence."]

Alderman, Geoffrey. "Editorial: Harold Pinter - A Jewish View". Current Viewpoint. Current viewpoint.com, 27 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2009.

Andrews, Jamie. " 'Tender the dead, as you yourself would be tendered...' ". Harold Pinter Archive Blog: British Library Curators on Cataloguing the Pinter Archive. British Library, 6 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Areté: The Arts Tri-Quarterly 28 (Spring/Summer 2009). Ed. Craig Raine. ISBN 9780955455384. Print.

Baker, Terry. "Harold Pinter and the Sports Field." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 10. Print.

Billington, Michael. "Goodnight, Sweet Prince: Shakespearean Farewell to Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

–––. "Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

British Library. "Harold Pinter (1930–2008)". Harold Pinter Archive Blog: British Library Curators on Cataloguing the Pinter Archive. British Library, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2009.

Brooks, Melvyn. "A Memory of Harold Pinter." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 14. Print.

Cavendish, Dominic. "Harold Pinter: How the Theatre World Saw Him". Telegraph, Blogs. Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009. (Reprints an article that Cavendish "compiled for the Telegraph shortly after Pinter turned 70 – back in Ocober 2000 – on the eve of the 40th anniversary reval of 'The Caretaker', the play which catapulted him to fame and fortune."]

Cohen, Nick. "Pinter Was Powerful and Passionate, But Often Misguided". Observer, "Comment is Free". Guardian Media Group, 28 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Coveney, Michael. "Harold Pinter: A Celebration, National Theatre, London: Some Pauses to Remember". Independent. Independent News and Media, 9 June 2009. Web. 9 June 2009.

Daily Mail Reporter. "Breaking News: Nobel Prize-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies Aged 78". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008. [Updated on 26 Dec. 2008 by Greenhill.]

Dodds, Paisley (Associated Press). "Nobel-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies at 78". ABC News. American Broadcasting Company, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

Dorfman, Ariel. "The World That Harold Pinter Unlocked". Washington Post. Washington Post, 27 Dec. 2008, A15. Print. The Washington Post Company, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 9 Jan. 2009.

–––. " 'You want to free the world from oppression?' ". New Statesman, Jan. 2009. New Statesman, 8 Jan. 2009. World Wide Web. 9 Jan. 2009. ["Ariel Dorfman on the life and work of Harold Pinter (1930–2008)."]

Driscoll, Margarette. "Yo, Grandpa Pinter, Big Respect". Times Online. News International (News Corporation), 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. [Concerns the poem "Grandpa", © Simon Soros 2008, listed below.]

Eden, Richard. "Harold Pinter Faces Opposition to Memorial in Poet's Corner". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 3 Jan. 2009. Web. 3 Jan. 2009.

Edgar, David. "Pinter's Weasels". Guardian, "Comment is Free". Guardian Media Group, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. ["The idea that he was a dissenting figure only in later life ignores the politics of his early work."]

"Editorial: Harold Pinter: Breaking the Rules". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 Mar. 2009. ["Pinter broke the rules in art and in life."]

Edwardes, Jane. "Time Out's Tribute to Harold Pinter". Time Out London, Theatre. Time Out Group Ltd., 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 May 2009.

Fenton, Anna, and Lucy Jackson. "Harold Pinter: A Look Back". Journal. The Edinburgh Journal Limited, 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2009.

"Friends Bid Pinter Farewell". BBC News. BBC, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

Greenhill, Sam. "Theatreland in Mourning As Nobel Prize-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies Aged 78". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

Gussow, Mel, and Ben Brantley."Harold Pinter, Playwright of the Pause, Dies at 78". New York Times. New York Times Company, 25 Dec. 2008, Theater. Web. 26 Dec. 2008. [Web version of article listed below.]

–––. "Harold Pinter, Whose Silences Redefined Drama, Dies at 78." New York Times 26 Dec. 2008, national ed., sec. A: 1, A22–23. Print. [Cites "Online: A Pinter Appraisal: An audio evaluation by Ben Brantley, reviews of Mr. Pinter's plays and more". Print version of article listed above.]

"Harold Pinter". Economist, People: Obituary. The Economist Group, 30 Dec. 2008. Web. 15 Jan. 2009. ["Harold Pinter, playwright and polemicist, died on December 24, aged 78."]

"Harold Pinter Mourned by PEN". English PEN, News. English Centre of International PEN, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. [Includes an introductory tribute written by Jonathan Heawood and a selection of messages received from around the world.]

"Harold Pinter 1930 – 2008". National Theatre, Theatre News. National Theatre, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009.

"Harold Pinter 1930–2008: Great Playwright, Nobel Laureate – and TLS Cricketer". Times Literary Supplement. News International (News Corporation), 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 9 Jan. 2009.

"Harold Pinter: One of the Most Influential British Playwrights of Modern Times". Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009.

"Harold Pinter Tribute". Granta. Granta, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2009.

"In Memoriam: Harold Pinter". The Pinter Centre for the Study of Performance and Creative Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London. Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2009.

Jacobson, Howard. "Opinion: Howard Jacobson: Harold Pinter Didn't Get My Joke, and I Didn't Get Him – Until It Was Too Late". Independent. Independent News and Media, 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2009.

Jamieson, Alastair. "Nobel Laureate Playwright Harold Pinter Dies". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009. ["Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and political activist, has died of liver cancer aged 78." (Includes links to several other related articles.)]

Kamm, Oliver. "Harold Pinter: An Impassioned Artist Who Lost Direction on the Political Stage". Times. News International (News Corporation), 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Lafferty, Julia. "Pinter – A Man of Principle". Hackney Gazette, Letters. Archant, 7 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009.

Marowitz, Charles. "Harold Pinter: 1930 – 2008". Swans, Commentary. Swans, 29 Dec. 2008 – 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2009.

McCallum, John. "Companies Recall Good Ghost of Pinter". Australian. News Limited, 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2009.

Miller, Lionel. "The Lost Librarian." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 5. Print.

Morgan, Clare. "Festival Joins Forces for Free Pinter Tribute". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital, 28 Jan.2009. Web, 28 Jan. 2009.

"MP Backs Pinter Tribute Campaign". Hackney Gazette, News. Archant, 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009.

"Obituary: Harold Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

"Pinter Ends It All with a Double Plot". Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 4 Jan. 2009.

Sands, Sarah. "Opinion: Sarah Sands: Pinter's Funeral – More Final Reckoning Than Reconciliation". Independent. Independent News and Media, 4 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2009.

Sherwin, Adam. "Portrait of Harold Pinter Playing Cricket To Be Sold at Auction". Times. News International, 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Mar. 2009.

Smith, Alastair. "Pinter to be Honoured Before Final Performance of No Man's Land". Stage, News. Stage Newspaper Group Ltd, 2 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

Soros, Simon. "Grandpa". Sunday Times. News International (News Corporation), 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. (© Simon Soros 2008). [See hyperlinked account by Driscoll listed above and The Pinter Review publication listed below.]

–––. "Grandpa." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 1. Print.

Stothard, Peter. "Harold Pinter: Exit a Master". Times Literary Supplement (TLS. News International (News Corporation), 7 Jan. 2009. Web. 8 Jan. 2009. [Rpt. from blog of TLS ed. Peter Stothard; first posted on 25 Dec. 2008.]

Supple, Barry. "Harold Pinter – Some Memories." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 6–7. Print. [This memorial tribute consists of "edited excerpts" from Supple's autobiography, Doors Open (Cambridge, Eng.: Asher, 2008). ISBN 0956005705 (10). ISBN 9780956005700 (13). Print.]

Taylor, Jean (Hersh). "Of Harold Pinter and Joseph Brearley." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 18. Print.

Taylor-Batty, Mark, comp. "In Memoriam: Harold Pinter". Harold Pinter Society Webpages. The Harold Pinter Society, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009. ["Harold Pinter - playwright, poet, actor, director, political activist - died on 24 December 2008, aged 78 ... Here are a few of the obituaries and commentaries released by the international press and online theatre community." (Contains "Key links" and a hyperlinked "Full list" periodically being updated.)]

Thomas, Edward. "Theatre Talk with Edward Thomas: The End of the Pauses." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 9. Print. [Rpt. by permission of Theatre Monthly Encore.]

"Times Obituary: Harold Pinter". Times. News International (News Corporation), 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

Ulaby, Neda. "Remembrances: Remembering Influential Playwright Harold Pinter". Day to Day. National Public Radio, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008. [Includes audio clip.]

Wainwright, Hilary. "In Words and Silences". Red Pepper. Red Pepper magazine, Dec. 2008. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. ["Hilary Wainwright reflects on Harold Pinter and Red Pepper."]

Walker, Peter, David Smith, and Haroon Siddique. "Harold Pinter: Tributes Pour In After Death of Dramatist Aged 78". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Jan. 2009. ["Multi-award winning playwright lauded by dignitaries of theatrical and political spheres. … Tributes are being paid to the playwright Harold Pinter today from both the theatrical and political worlds after his death from cancer, aged 78."]

Watkins, G. L. "Harold Pinter, CH, CBE. 10th October 1930 – 24th December 2008 (Hackney Downs School, 1942–1948, Hammond House, Prefect)," "Memorable Phrasings," and "Elsewhere in the World." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 4; 8; 11. Print.

–––, ed. The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 1–36. Print. [This issue contains several memorial tributes to Pinter and to other departed former classmates; on Pinter, see Baker, Miller, Supple, Taylor, Thomas, Yeates, and Watkins.]

"West End Pays Tribute to Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 1 Jan. 2009. [Includes video clip.]

Westwood, Matthew. "Blanchett Stars in Free Play". Australian. News Limited, 27 Jan. 2009. Web, 28 Jan. 2009.

Winer, Linda. "Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter Dead at 78". Newsday. Newsday Inc., 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Jan. 2009.

Yeates, Binnie (Yankovitch). "Harold Pinter – Romeo – 1948". Rpt. in "Romeo," by Jamie Andrews. Harold Pinter Archive Blog. British Library, 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2009. Rpt. from "Harold Pinter Romeo and Juliet – 1948." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 8. Print. [Reproduced with permission of the author.]

External links[edit]


Category:Alumni of the Central School of Speech and Drama Category:Anti-Iraq War activists Category:Ashkenazi Jews Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:British anti-nuclear weapons activists Category:British anti-war activists Category:British conscientious objectors Category:British people of Polish descent Category:British people of Ukrainian descent Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:David Cohen Prize recipients Category:English conscientious objectors Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:English human rights activists Category:English Jews Category:English Nobel laureates Category:English socialists Category:English social justice activists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish playwrights Category:Légion d'honneur recipients Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Category:Nobel laureates in Literature Category:Olivier Award winners Category:People associated with Queen Mary, University of London Category:People from Hackney Category:People from Lower Clapton {{Lifetime|1930|2008|Pinter, Harold}}

[Version of Bibliography for Harold Pinter of 30 June 2009; see automatically interlinked message re: {{Ref indent}} and discussion there; in case changes are made to this cross-linked section of the main article and one need to check bibliographical details provided prior to 27 and 30 June 2009, the material is accessible here. It also shows the proper use of hanging paragraphs, as they are used in criticism and scholarship on Pinter and many other subjects in Wikipedia, including in featured articles.]

Bibliography for Harold Pinter is a list of selected published primary works, productions, secondary sources, and other resources related to English playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008), the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, who was also a screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author, and political activist. It lists works by and works about him, and it serves as the Bibliography ("Works cited") for the main article on Harold Pinter and for several articles relating to him and his works.

Bibliographical resources[edit]

Baker, William, and John C. Ross, comps. Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History. London: The British Library and New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll P, 2005. ISBN 1584561564 (10). ISBN 9781584561569 (13). Print. "Oak Knoll Press Bestsellers", "[http://www.oakknoll.com/resources/pdfcatalogues/Cat2007Spring_web.pdf Spring – Summer 2007 Catalogue]" (PDF). {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)Spring – Summer 2007 Catalogue (9.25 MB). Oak Knoll Press, 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Page 37 of 40 pages.)

"Biobibliographical Notes" and "Bibliography" for "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005." In "Bio-bibliography". By The Swedish Academy. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005. nobelprize.org. The Swedish Academy and The Nobel Foundation, Oct. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. (English HTML version.) [Additional PDF versions accessible in English, French, German, and Swedish via hyperlinks.]

Harold Pinter: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (1960–1980). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1999. Web. 5 Apr. 2009.

"Links: Libraries and Academia" and "Publications": "Works By" and "Works About" Pinter. haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2009]. Web. 18 Apr. 2009.

Merritt, Susan Hollis, comp. "Harold Pinter Bibliography". SusanHollisMerritt.org. Susan Hollis Merritt, 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2009. (Webpage pertaining to the "Harold Pinter Bibliography" published in The Pinter Review. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1987– .)

–––. "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2000–2002." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 242–300. Print.

–––. "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2002–2004 With a Special Supplement on the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, October 2005 – May 2006." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 261–343. Print.

The Pinter Review. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1987– ). Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. [Table of contents of past issues, retyped on index Webpage; occasional typographical variations.]

The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. ISBN 9781879852198 (hardcover). ISBN 9781879852204 (softcover). ISSN 08959706 Parameter error in {{issn}}: Invalid ISSN.. Print.

The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library[edit]

British Library (BL). "Harold Pinter Archive: Additional Manuscripts 88880: Full Description". Manuscripts Catalogue. BL, London, 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2009. (See below.)

–––. "Loan No. 110 A/1-74: Harold Pinter Archive". British Library Manuscripts (Loan) Catalogue. BL, London, 1994–2009. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. (Updated.) ["The manuscripts formerly held as Loan 110 A were purchased by the British Library with additional material in 2007 and are now part of the Harold Pinter Archive, which is numbered Add MS 88880." (See above.) The contents of this pre-acquisition online list of "Loan No. 110 A" has been incorporated in the BL's updated Manuscripts Catalogue after the BL acquired Pinter's Archive and catalogued it (a process completed in 2009). Although its earlier title listed "1-74" (boxes), it covered 80 boxes prior to the acquisition. The acquisition of over 150 boxes has been catalogued as part of its "Additional Collections": no. Add MS 88880; full descriptions provide references to the earlier box nos. incorporated in it.]

–––. "Pinter Archive Saved for the Nation: British Library Acquires Extensive Collection of UK's Greatest Living Playwright." The British Library: The World's Knowledge. British Library, 11 Dec. 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2007. [British Library press release.]

Brown, Mark. "British Library's £1.1m Saves Pinter's Papers for Nation". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 12 Dec. 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2007.

Gale, Steven H., and Christopher Hudgins. "The Harold Pinter Archives II: A Description of the Filmscript Materials in the Archive in the British Library." The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1995 and 1996. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1997. 101-42. Print. [Follows up article by Merritt listed below; does not include an updated version of Merritt's "Appendix"; focuses on manuscript materials relating to Pinter's screenplays.]

Howard, Jennifer. "British Library Acquires Pinter Papers". Chronicle of Higher Education, News Blog. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 12 Dec. 2007. Web. 16 Dec. 2007.

Merritt, Susan Hollis. "The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library." The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 14-53. Print. [The first article describing in detail the contents of this archive; it includes: "Appendix: List of Boxes Presently in the Archive: Loan 110 A/1-(64): Harold Pinter Archive," which provides, with emendations and corrections, the original BL "finding list" through Box 64; in 1994 the "finding list" covered only through Box 61; this Appendix adds Boxes 62, 63, & 64, all pertaining to Pinter's screenplay adapting The Handmaid's Tale (a novel by Margaret Atwood) for the 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale. See British Library, "Loan No. 110 A/1-74: Harold Pinter Archive" and the follow-up article by Gale and Hudgins, both listed above.]

O'Brien, Kate (BL Cataloguer). "When Do We Get to See the Stuff?!" Harold Pinter Archive Blog: British Library Curators on Cataloguing the Pinter Archive. British Library, 29 Sept. 2008. Web. 3 Jan. 2009.

Works[edit]

"Apart From That". Areté 20 (Spring/Summer 2006): 5–8. Print.

Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture. Presented on video in Stockholm, Sweden. 7 Dec. 2005. Nobel Foundation and Swedish Academy. Published as "The Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics". NobelPrize.org. Nobel Foundation, 8 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (RealPlayer streaming audio and video as well as text available). London: Faber and Faber, 2006. ISBN 0571233961 (10). ISBN 9780571233960 (13). Rpt. also in The Essential Pinter. New York: Grove, 2006. (Listed below.) Rpt. also in PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association 121 (2006): 811–18. Print. Rpt. also in Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008 285–300. Print.

"Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 2 Oct. 2007 and 8 Dec. 2005 World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007 and 7 May 2009. ["In his video-taped Nobel acceptance speech, Harold Pinter excoriated a 'brutal, scornful and ruthless' United States. This is the full text of his address"; features links relating to Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Originally part of "Special Report: The Nobel Prize for Literature: 2005 Harold Pinter." Periodically updated and re-located since 2005.)]

The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Landscape, Old Timesand Celebration. In The Essential Pinter. New York: Grove, 2006. ISBN 0802142699 (10). ISBN 9780802142696. Print.

"Campaigning Against Torture: Arthur Miller's Socks" (1985). ("Written as a tribute to Arthur Miller, on the occasion of his 80th birthday".) HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 3 July 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Various Voices 56-57.

–––. The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter: Two Plays by Harold Pinter. 1960. New York: Grove, 1988. ISBN 080215087x Parameter error in {{ISBN}}: invalid character (10). ISBN 9780802150875 (13). Print.

Celebration and The Room. London: Faber, 2000. ISBN 057120497X (10). ISBN 9780571204977 (13). Print.

Death etc. New York: Grove, 2005. ISBN 0802142257 (10). ISBN 9780802142252 (13). Print.

The Dwarfs. New York: Grove, 2006. ISBN 0-8021-3266-9. ISBN 9780802132666 (13). Print.

The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter. New York: Grove, 2006. ISBN 0802142699 (10). ISBN 9780802142696 (13). Print. [Inc. "Art, Truth & Politics: The 2005 Nobel Lecture"; 8 plays and the dramatic sketch "Press Conference"; and 10 poems.]

The Hothouse: A Play by Harold Pinter. New York: Grove (Distributed by Random House), 1980. ISBN 0394513959 (10). ISBN 9780394513959 (13). ISBN 0394176758 (10). ISBN 9780394176758 (13). ISBN 0802136435 (10). ISBN 9780802136435 (13).

Four Plays: The Birthday Party; No Man's Land; Mountain Language; Celebration. London: Faber, 2005. ISBN 0571232272 (10). ISBN 9780571232277 (13). Print. [A "celebratory collection" of hardcover reprinted editions in a box set published in 2005 "to mark [Pinter's] Nobel Prize for Literature 2005".]

Moonlight. New York: Grove, 1994. ISBN 0802133932 (10). ISBN 9780802133939 (13). Print.

One for the Road. New York: Grove (Evergreen paperback), 1986. ISBN 0394623630 (10). ISBN 9780394623634 (13). ISBN 0394545753 (10). ISBN 9780394545752 (13). Print. ["With production photos by Ivan Kyncl and an interview on the play and its politics," by Nicholas Hern, entitled "A Play and Its Politics: A Conversation between Harold Pinter and Nicholas Hern" (February 1985).]

Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948-2005. Rev. ed. 1998. London: Faber, 2005. ISBN 0571230091 (10). ISBN 9780571230099 (13). Print.

Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. 1998, 2005. London: Faber, 2009. ISBN 9780571244805. Print.

"Voices: Text by Harold Pinter and Music by James Clarke". Through the Night. BBC Radio 3, Speech and Drama, 10 Oct. 2005, 9:30-10:15 p.m. (LT). Web. 10 Oct. 2005 [live]. Repeated on 30 Dec. 2006. (RealPlayer audio no longer accessible.) "BBC Press Office: Programme Information Network Radio Week 1". BBC Press Office. BBC, 10 Oct. 2005. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. (Re-broadcast with Moonlight, as part of Harold Pinter Double Bill, on 15 Feb. 2009, as listed below in #Multimedia resources.)

War. London: Faber, 2003. ISBN 0571221319 (10). ISBN 9780571221318 (13). Print. (Book revs. by Gardner and Brown.)

Additional essays, letters, and speeches[edit]

"The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal". Telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Dec. 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [A version of "Harold Pinter Gives Honorary Doctorate Speech at Turin University - 27th November 2002" (see below).]

"Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Degree Speech April 18th 2000". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"Blowing Up the Media: Index on Censorship, May 1992." Print. Rpt. in Various Voices 201–5. Print.

"Caribbean Cold War". Red Pepper May 1996. Redpepper.org. Red Pepper magazine, May 1996. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. (Rpt. in Guardian 4 Dec. 1996. Also rpt. in Pinter, Various Voices 209–12. Print.)

"Degree Speech to the University of Florence 10th September 2001". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. as "University of Florence Speech: On the Occasion of the Award of an Honorary Degree, 10 September 2001". Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 238–40.

"Eroding the Language of Freedom: Sanity, March 1989." Rpt. in HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 188–89. Print.

Foreword. Degraded Capability: The Media and the Kosovo Crisis. Ed. Philip Hammond and Edward S. Herman. London: Pluto Press, 2000. ISBN 074531631X. Print.

"The Gulf War and the Continuing Bombing of Iraq". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Includes hyperlinked essays and speeches.] (See ""House of Commons Speech: 15 October 2002" below.)

"Harold Pinter Gives Honorary Doctorate Speech at Turin University - 27th November 2002". Artists Network of Refuse & Resist!, 12 Dec. 2005. Web. 15 Mar. 2009. Rpt. as "University of Turin Speech: On the Occasion of the Award of an Honorary Degree 27 November 2002." Various Voices 241–43. Also rpt. in War [7–9; n. pag.]. Print. (Another version was published as "The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal" [without internal quotation marks]; see above.)

"House of Commons Speech – 15 October 2002". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Death etc. 71–73. Print.

"House of Commons Speech - Tuesday 21st January 2003". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 244. Print.

"Introduction by Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate." 7–9 in 'Fortune's Fool': The Man Who Taught Harold Pinter: A Life of Joe Brearley. Ed. G. L. Watkins. Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Eng., UK: TwigBooks in association with The Clove Club, 2008. ISBN 9780954723682. Print.

"Iraq Debate: Imperial War Museum, 23 September 2004". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2004. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Various Voices 24–46. Print.

"It Never Happened". Z Magazine. Z Communications, Feb. 1997. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. Rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 214-17. Print.

"Letter from Pinter, Saramago, Chomsky and Berger". Scoop (New Zealand). Scoop.co.nz Independent News, 25 July 2006. Web. 15 Mar. 2009. ["This letter, signed by Harold Pinter, José Saramago, Noam Chomsky and John Berger, has been forwarded to major newspapers."]

"Oh, Superman: Broadcast for Opinion, Channel 4, 31 May 1990." Rpt. in Various Voices 190–200. Print. Excerpt qtd. in "Politics" section of haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"An Open Letter to the Prime Minister: Guardian 17 February 1998." Hyperlinked in "The Gulf War and the Continuing Bombing of Iraq". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]; (original posting) Oct. 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. Rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 235–37. Print.

"Speech at Hyde Park (F)ebruary 15th 2003". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"The US and El Salvador: Observer, 28 March 1993." Rpt. in Various Voices 206–208. Print.

"The US Elephant Must Be Stopped." Guardian, 5 December 1987". Rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 185–87. Print.

"The War Against Reason". Red Pepper Dec. 2002. Rpt. in ZNet. Z Communications, 27 Nov. 2002. Web. 4 Mar. 2009.

"Why George Bush Is Insane" (2002). Rpt. in ZNet. Z Communications, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 4 Mar. 2009. [Another published version of the University of Turin Speech (27 Nov. 2002), listed above, and rpt. in Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 241-43. Print.]

"Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry: Acceptance Speech, 18 March 2005". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Death etc. 1–2 and Various Voices (Faber rev. ed., 2005) 247–48. Print.

Poems[edit]

"Death May Be Ageing" (Apr. 2005). Rpt. in Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2005 (2005 ed.) 180. Print. Also rpt. in "Poetry by Harold Pinter" in Another America (listed below).

"Harold Pinter (b. 1930)". Poetryarchive.org. The Poetry Archive, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Biography, critical account, and streaming audio of a special recording of Pinter reading four of his poems: "Cancer Cells", "It is Here", "Later", and "Episode"; recorded 16 Dec. 2002, The Audio Workshop, London; prod. Richard Carrington.]

"Harold Pinter's Poetry". HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Includes "Harold Pinter's Most Recent Poetry" (periodically updated).]

"Harold Pinter's War", by M. C. Gardner. Another America. Donald Freed, May 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Includes texts and related review of War.] (See "Poetry by Harold Pinter", in Another America, listed below.)

"Laughter." In "Review: Laughter: The Saturday Poem: By Harold Pinter." Guardian 25 Nov. 2006, Guardian Review Pages: 23. Print.

"Literature of the Gaieties". haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 1 Nov. 2007.

"Poetry by Harold Pinter". Another America. Donald Freed, May 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Published with permission of Harold Pinter.]

Sections of various printed collections such as Death etc., The Essential Pinter, The Pinter Review, Various Voices, and War. Print.

"The Special Relationship" (Aug. 2004). haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2004. Web. 31 Oct. 2007. [Featured link accessible from home page.]

"The 'special relationship'." Guardian 9 Sept. 2004, G2: 4. Print.

"The Watcher." Guardian 9 Apr. 2007: 3. Print.

Interviews[edit]

Batty, Mark. "Pinter Views: Pinter on Pinter." 79–153 (chap. 8) in Batty, About Pinter. Print.

Bensky, Lawrence M. "The Art of Theatre No. 3: Harold Pinter". Paris Rev. 10.39 (Fall 1966): 12–37. Print. Excerpt from archived contents of journal; hyperlinked ""The Art of Theatre No. 3: Harold Pinter"" (PDF). (280 KB). Paris Review. Paris Review Foundation, Inc., 2004. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [A frequently-cited source of Pinter's early views.]

Billington, Michael. " 'I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?' " Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 17 Mar. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Transcript.

–––, comp. " 'They said you've a call from the Nobel committee. I said, why?': Harold Pinter in His Own Words". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 14 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Bull, Andy. "Playwright Harold Pinter's Last Interview Reveals His Childhood Love of Cricket and Why It Is Better Than Sex". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 Mar. 2009.

Burton, Harry. "Harold Pinter - Interview (MP3, 47mins, 19MB)" (Golden Generation conference podcast). British Library Online Gallery: What's On. British Library, 8 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. Downloadable MP3 podcast. ["Harold Pinter shares his memories of postwar British theatre with actor and director Harry Burton." Introduced by Jamie Andrews (Head, Modern Literary Manuscripts, British Library) and recorded at the Golden Generation conference, held at the British Library on 8–9 Sept. 2008.]

Gussow, Mel. Conversations with Pinter. London: Nick Hern Books, 1994. ISBN 1854592017. Rpt. New York: Limelight, 2004. ISBN 0879101792. Print.

Hern, Nicholas, and Harold Pinter. "A Play and Its Politics: A Conversation between Harold Pinter and Nicholas Hern." February 1985. 5–23 in Pinter, One for the Road. Print.

Johnson, B. S. "Evacuees" (1968). The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 8-13. Print.

Jones, Rebecca, and Harold Pinter. Interview. Today. BBC Radio 4 BBC, 12 May 2008. Web. 7 Apr. 2009. (Streaming audio [excerpts], BBC Radio Player; "extended interview" audio RealAudio Media [.ram] clip ["PINTER20080513"]. Duration of shorter, broadcast version: 3 mins., 56 secs.; duration of the extended interview: 10 mins., 19 secs.) [Interview with Pinter conducted by Jones on the occasion of the 50th anniversary revival of The Birthday Party at the Lyric Hammersmith, London; BBC Radio Player version was accessible for a week after first broadcast in "Listen again" on the Today website.]

Koval, Ramona. "Harold Pinter". Books and Writing with Ramona Koval. ABC Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 Sept. 2002. Conducted at Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug. 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. Radio. Transcript.

–––. "Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-Winning Playwright and Poet, at Edinburgh International Book Festival (transcript available)." Edinburgh, Scotland, 25 Aug. 2006. The Book Show. ABC Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 25 Sept. 2006. Web. 26 Sept. 2006. Radio. Transcript. (Downloadable MP3 audio file and printable transcript.) [Audio file includes Pinter's dramatic reading of a scene from his play The Birthday Party.]

Lawson, Mark. "Pinter 'to give up writing plays' ". Inc. "Pinter on Front Row". Broadcast on BBC Radio 4. BBC News, 28 Feb. 2005 (last updated). Web. 11 Nov. 2006 & 2 Oct. 2007. Radio. (RealPlayer audio.)

Lyall, Sarah. "Still Pinteresque". New York Times 7 Oct. 2007, sec. 2 ("Arts & Leisure"): 1, 16; illus. Print. New York Times, Movies. New York Times Company, 7 Oct. 2007. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Feature article which previews Sleuth; includes comments from Lyall's interview with Pinter and the hyperlinked film trailer.]

Riddell, Mary. "The New Statesman Interview: Harold Pinter". New Statesman. New Statesman, 8 Nov. 1999. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Includes audio clip.]

Rose, Charlie. "An Appreciation of Harold Pinter". The Charlie Rose Show. WNET, New York, 2 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. [Rebroadcast of "A Conversation with Harold Pinter" (filmed at the Old Vic Theatre and first broadcast on 1 Mar. 2007). Introduced as "An appreciation of English dramatist, actor and theater director Harold Pinter who died on December 24, 2008" ("In memoriam"). (52 mins., 52 secs.; buffered).]

–––. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter." Charlie Rose. PBS. WNET, New York, 19 July 2001. Television. [First broadcast on 19 July 2001 from 11:00 p.m. EST to 12:00 a.m. EST; also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. (58 mins.).] Video clip (57 mins., 47 secs.). Google Video. Google, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2007 & 3 Jan. 2009.

–––. "A Conversation with Harold Pinter" (Filmed at the Old Vic, London). Charlie Rose. PBS. WNET, New York, 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 1 Mar. 2007. Television. [First broadcast on 1 Mar. 2007 from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET; also broadcast on PBS affiliate channels at various scheduled times. PBS. WXXI-TV, Rochester, New York, 1 Mar. 2007. Broadcast from 11:00 p.m. ET to 12:00 a.m. ET. (52 mins., 21 secs.) Full-length streaming video accessible directly from the show's Website. Rebroadcast as "An Appreciation of Harold Pinter" (See above).]

Wark, Kirsty. "Harold Pinter on Newsnight Review". BBC News. BBC, 23 June 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. ["Kirsty Wark introduces her interview with Harold Pinter, which aired on Newsnight Review, Friday 23 June, at 11pm on BBC TWO." (See below).]

–––. "Interviews: Nobel Prize Winning Playwright Harold Pinter Talks to Kirsty Wark". Newsnight Review. BBC Two, London, 23 June 2006. Television. BBC News. BBC, 25 June 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. RealPlayer streaming video. (See above.)

Stage productions[edit]

"The Birthday Party: 8–24 May 2008". Lyric. Lyric Hammersmith, 2008. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.

"The Birthday Party – Premiere". haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. ["First presented by Michael Codron and David Hall at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge 28 April 1958, and subsequently at the Lyric Opera House, Hammersmith." Production details and excerpts from related reviews by Harold Hobson (See below) and others.]

"The Caretaker – Premiere". Dir. Donald McWhinnie, Arts Theatre Club, Arts Theatre, London, 27 Apr. 1960; transferred to the Duchess Theatre, London, 30 May 1960. haroldpinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. [Production details and excerpts from related reviews.]

The Dumb Waiter (1957). Dir. Harry Burton. Trafalgar Studios, London. Opened 2 February 2007. Trafalgar Studios. Ambassador Theatre Group, 2 Oct. 2007. Internet Archive. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

"Dumb Waiter Limited Run". 50th anniversary production. Press release. Sonia Friedman Productions, 3 Jan. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

The Homecoming on Broadway: The Story. Dir. Daniel Sullivan. Cort Theatre, New York. 16 Dec. 2007 - 13 Apr. 2008. (Previews from 4 Dec. 2007.) The Homecoming on Broadway. Jeffrey Richards Productions, Feb. 2008. Web. 27 Feb. 2008. (Official site of the 2007–2008 Cort Theatre production.) Archived version of home page. Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine, 12 Oct. 2007. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.

The Homecoming at the Internet Broadway Database. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.

"The Hothouse". Dir. Ian Rickson. Lyttelton Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London. 11 July – 27 Oct. 2007. National Theatre Online, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Features NT Video.]

Krapp's Last Tape. Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, London. 12 Oct.–24 Oct. 2006. Royal Court Theatre, Oct. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

No Man's Land. Dir. Rupert Goold. Duke of York's Theatre, London. 27 Sept. 2008 – 3 Jan. 2009. Sonia Friedman Productions, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.(Transferred from the Gate Theatre, Dublin.)

One For The Road - Premiere" (1984). (A double bill with Victoria Station.) HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Production details and excerpts from related reviews.]

"Sheffield Theatres: Harold Pinter: A Celebration". Sheffield Theatres, Sheffield, Eng., Oct. – Nov. 2006. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

"Victoria Station - Lyric Studio 1984". (A double bill with One for the Road.) HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Production details and excerpts from related reviews.]

Official authorised biography[edit]

Billington, Michael. Harold Pinter. London: Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). Updated 2nd ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. 1996. London: Faber, 1997. ISBN 0571171036 (10). Print.

Other secondary sources[edit]

Agencies. "'The foremost representative of British drama': Excerpts from the Swedish Academy's Citation Awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature to British Playwright Harold Pinter." Guardian, Culture: Books. Guardian Media Group, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. (Previously part of "Special Reports: The Nobel Prize for Literature" in 2005.)

Allen-Mills, Tony. "This Pinter Guy Could Turn Into a Pain". Times Online. News International, 6 Nov. 2005. Web. 15 Mar. 2009. ["Belatedly, Americans are wising up to a Nobel menace, says Tony Allen-Mills."]

Anderson, Porter. "Harold Pinter: Theater's Angry Old Man: At the Prize of Europe, the Playwright Is All Politics." CNN.com. CNN, 17 Mar. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Baker, William. Harold Pinter. Writers' Lives Series. London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN 0826499708 (10) (hardback). ISBN 9780826499707 (13) (hardback). ISBN 0826499716 (10) (paperback). ISBN 9780826499714 (13) (paperback). Print.

Batiukov, Michael. "Belarus 'Free Theatre' Is Under Attack by Militia in Minsk, Belarus". American Chronicle. Ultio, LLC, 22 Aug. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Batty, Mark. About Pinter: The Playwright and the Work. London: Faber, 2005. ISBN 0571220053 (10). ISBN 9780571220052 (13). Print. [Includes chap. 9, "Views on Pinter: Friends and Collaborators" on 155–221.]

Begley, Varun. Harold Pinter and the Twilight of Modernism. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2005. ISBN 0802038875 (10). ISBN 9780802038876 (13). Print.

Billington, Michael. "The Importance of Being Pinter: A New Production by the Belarus Free Theatre Reinforces the Global Resonance of the British Playwright's Political Works". Guardian, Arts blog – Theatre. Guardian Media Group, 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 16 April 2007.

–––. "Krapp's Last Tape: 4 Stars Royal Court, London". Guardian, Theatre. Guardian Media Group, 16 Oct. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

–––. "Passionate Pinter's Devastating Assault On US Foreign Policy: Shades of Beckett As Ailing Playwright Delivers Powerful Nobel Lecture." Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 8 Dec. 2005, Books. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

–––. "We Are Catching Up With This Man's Creative Talent At Last: The Current Rash of Pinter Revivals Is about Far More Than Guilt or Respect. Both Artistically and Politically, He Was Ahead of the Pack." Guardian, Comment. Guardian Media Group, 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2007.

Bond, Paul. "Harold Pinter's Artistic Achievement". World Socialist Web Site. World Socialist Web Site, 29 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Brantley, Ben. "Harold Pinter". New York Times, Times Topics . New York Times Company, 2009 (updated periodically). Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Introd. to hyperlinked Harold Pinter News––New York Times; includes menu of recommended external links.]

–––. "A Master of Menace." (Audio file.) (See "Multimedia resources" listed below.)

–––. "Theater Review: The Homecoming (Cort Theater): You Can Go Home Again, But You'll Pay the Consequences". New York Times 17 Dec. 2007, The Arts: E1. Print. New York Times Company, 17 Dec. 2007. Web. 17 Dec. 2007.

Brown, Mark. "What Is It (War) Good for?" Socialist Review. Socialist Review, Sept. 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Book rev. of War, by Harold Pinter.]

"Bush and Blair Slated by Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 7 Dec. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Features related links.)

The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. ISBN 052165842X (10). ISBN 9780521658423 (13). Print. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 11 October 2007. [Hyperlinked table of contents.]

Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD). "Central Announces New President". Press release. Central School of Speech and Drama. University of London, 9 Oct. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2008.

–––. "Central's 2008 Graduation Ceremony: Honorary Fellowships for Harold Pinter, Jo Brand and Penny Francis". Press release. Central School of Speech and Drama. University of London, 12 Dec. 2008. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

Chomsky, Noam. "Comments on Dershowitz". ZNet. Z Communications, 6 Sept. 2006. Web. 7 Sept. 2006. (Followed by text by Alan Dershowitz.)

–––. "Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine: Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago & Howard Zinn" (Updated signatures). chomsky.info . Noam Chomsky, 19 July 2006. Web, 4 Oct. 2007.

Chrisafis, Angelique, and Imogen Tilden. "Pinter Blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 11 June 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Christie, Janet. "Cautionary Tale about a Boy and Girl". Scotland on Sunday, Books. Scotsman Publications, 7 Oct. 2007. Web. 9 Oct. 2007. [Outdated link.] "Cautionary Tale about a Boy and a Girl" (archived version). Internet Archive, 13 Oct. 2007. Web. 26 Jan. 2009.

Cohen, Lisa. "J. Barry Lewis on 'Betrayal'", Edge (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida). Edge Publications, Inc., 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Cole, Olivia. "Cut the Pauses ...Says Pinter". Times Online. News International (News Corporation), 11 Feb. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Coppa, Francesca. "The Sacred Joke: Comedy and Politics in Pinter's Early Plays". 44–56 in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2009. [Extract; registered account required for access to full text.]

Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK (CSC). Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, 2009. Web, 24 June 2009. (Official Website updated periodically.) [Site originally entitled Hands Off Cuba! when Pinter first began supporting the CSC and when accessed on 3 Oct. 2007 (see below). Re-titled The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK. According to his official website, not yet fully updated, "Harold Pinter is an active delegate and speaker on behalf of the CSC, especially in its campaign against the US Embargo" ("Political organisations" and causes supported by Pinter as hyperlinked in "Politics" in HaroldPinter.org, 2000–[2009]. Web, 24 June 2009.]

"Death of Vivien Merchant Is Ascribed to Alcoholism". New York Times. New York Times Company, 7 Oct. 1982. Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

"Degree Honour for Playwright Pinter". AOL.co.uk. AOL (UK), 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2009. [Cites Central School of Speech and Drama.]

Diamond, Elin. Pinter's Comic Play. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 1985. Print.

Dougary, Ginny. "Lady Antonia Fraser's Life Less Ordinary: In a Frank Interview, the Famed Writer Talks about Motherhood, Catholicism, Her Parents and Soulmate Harold Pinter". Times Online. News International (News Corporation), 5 July 2008. Web. 5 July 2008.

Eden, Richard, and Tim Walker. "Mandrake: A Pinteresque Silence". Sunday Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/27/nosplit/dp2701.xml> (original URL). Bookrags: HighBeam Research. Cengage Learning (Gale), 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 16 Mar. 2009. (Free trial for non-subscribers).

Ferguson, Niall. "Personal View: Do the Sums, Then Compare US and Communist Crimes from the Cold War". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Dec. 2005. Web. 9 May 2009.

Filichia, Peter. "McCarter Gives Pinter a Happy 'Birthday Party' ". Star-Ledger. McCarter Theatre Ticket Office (Reviews), 18 Sept. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Freed, Donald. "The Courage of Harold Pinter". Presentation at Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter. University of Leeds, 13 Apr. 2007. Another America. Donald Freed, Apr. 2007. Web. 28 May 2007.

French Embassy in the United Kingdom. "Harold Pinter Awarded Légion d'Honneur". France in the United Kingdom. French Embassy (UK), 17 Jan. 2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. (Press release.)

"French PM Honours Harold Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 18 Jan. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Gale, Steven H. Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2003. ISBN 0813122449 (10). ISBN 9780813122441 (13). Print.

–––, ed. The Films of Harold Pinter. Albany: SUNY P, 2001. ISBN 0791449327 (10). ISBN 9780791449325 (13). Print.

Gans, Andrew. "Broadway Homecoming Will Be a Week Later Than Originally Announced". Playbill, News. Playbill, 9 Aug. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Features hyperlink to "Listings/Tickets/Broadway: The Homecoming", Playbill.]

–––. "Esparza to Return to Broadway in The Homecoming; McKean, Too", Playbill, News. Playbill, 24 July 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

–––. "Ian McShane to Have Broadway Homecoming". Playbill, News. Playbill, 14 Nov. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Ganz, Arthur R., ed. Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972. ISBN 0136763871 (10). ISBN 9780136763871 (13). ISBN 0136763790 (10). ISBN 9780136763796 (13). Print. Archived version of full text. Internet Archive, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2009.

Gardner, M.C. "Harold Pinter's War". Book rev. Another America Journal. Lightning Source, Inc., 2003. Another America. Donald Freed, May 2007. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Gordon, Lois, ed. Pinter at 70: A Casebook. Casebooks on Modern Dramatists. 1990. Rev. and enl. ed. New York: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415936306 (10). ISBN 9780415936309 (13). Print.

Grimes, Charles. Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison & Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; Cranbury, NJ: Associated UP, 2005. ISBN 0838640508. Print.

Gussow, Mel. "Critic's Notebook: On the London Stage, a Feast of Revenge, Menace and Guilt". New York Times Company. New York Times, 31 July 1991. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Site registration may be required.)

Hadley, Kathryn. "Forward to Freedom". History Today News, History in the News. History Today Magazine, 15 June 2009. Web. 25 June 2009.

Hands Off Cuba! The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. [Official website updated periodically; cf. updated website for The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, listed above.]

Hari, Johann. "Johann Hari: Pinter Does Not Deserve the Nobel Prize: The Only Response to His Nobel Rant (and Does Anyone Doubt It Will Be a Rant?) Will Be a Long, Long Pause" (column). Independent, Comment. Independent News & Media, 6 Dec. 2005. Johann Hari, 2 Oct. 2007. Web. 12 Oct. 2007. (Archived in johannhari.com.)

"Harold Pinter Added to IFOA Lineup". Press release. International Festival of Authors (IFOA), Toronto, 1 Oct. 2001. Web. 1 Oct. 2001. "Harold Pinter Added to IFOA Lineup". Archived IFOA press release. The Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine. Web. 4 Oct. 2007.

Harold Pinter at the Internet Broadway Database. Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

"Harold Pinter Meets Free Theatre in Leeds". Press release. Belarus Free Theatre. Belarus Free Theatre, 2 May 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [English version has some typographical errors; also accessible in Belarusian [p??????] and in French [français]. Features photographs reposted from Mark Taylor-Batty's University of Leeds Website for the conference Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter.]

"Harold Pinter Taken to Hospital". BBC News. BBC, 30 Nov. 2005. Web. 7 May 2009.

Hickling, Alfred. "Being Harold Pinter ***** Workshop, University of Leeds". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Higgins, Charlotte. "Edinburgh Festival: Two-act rant from Sean and Harold". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 26 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Hinchliffe, Arnold P. Harold Pinter. The Griffin Authors Ser. New York: St. Martin's P, 1967. Print.

Hitchens, Christopher. "Opinion: The Sinister Mediocrity of Harold Pinter". Wall Street Jour. 17 Oct. 2005, A18. Print. Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company), 17 Oct. 2005. Web. 7 May 2009. [Electronic ed.; printable version "for personal, non-commercial use only."]

Hobson, Harold. "The Screw Turns Again". Sunday Times 25 May 1958: 11. Print. (Cited in Merritt, Pinter in Play.) Rpt. in The Birthday Party. HaroldPinter.org. Harold Pinter, 2000–[2008]. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. (See also "Stage productions" listed above.)

Hodgson, Martin. "British Jews Break Away from 'pro-Israeli' Board of Deputies". Independent. Independent News & Media, 5 Feb. 2007. World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Honigsbaum, Mark. "Publisher to Stand In for Pinter at Nobel Ceremony". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 24 Nov. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Horwitz, Simi. "James Frain Joins 'The Homecoming'". Backstage.com. Nielsen Business Media, Inc., 2 Oct. 2007. Web. 5 Oct. 2007.

Howard, Jennifer. "Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to Harold Pinter, British Playwright Widely Studied in Academe". Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 Oct. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Hudgins, Christopher C. "Harold Pinter's Lolita: 'My Sin, My Soul'." 123–46 in Gale, The Films of Harold Pinter.

–––. "The Nobel Prize Festivities: Stockholm, December 2005. A Joyous Report." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 43–50. Print.

–––. "Three Unpublished Harold Pinter Filmscripts: The Handmaid's Tale, The Remains of the Day, Lolita." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 132–39. Print.

Jacobson, Aileen. "Pinter's Pauses: Even the Playwright Thinks They've Led to Over-pausing. But Actors in Two New Productions Find Them Exciting." Newsday, 5 Nov. 1989. Print.

Jones, Edward T. "On The Remains of the Day: Harold Pinter Remaindered." 99–107 in Gale, The Films of Harold Pinter.

Jones, David. "Travels with Harold". Front & Center Online ("The Online Version of Roundabout Theatre Company's Subscriber Magazine"). Roundabout Theatre Company, Fall 2003. Web. 9 Oct. 2007. (3 pages.) ["David Jones' Staging of The Caretaker for Roundabout Culminates a 40-Year Career Acting and Directing the Work of Harold Pinter. Here the Director Looks Back."]

Karwowski, Michael. "Harold Pinter––a Political Playwright?" Contemporary Review 283.1654 (Nov. 2003): 291–96. Rpt. in HighBeam Encyclopedia. Web.

Lahr, John. "Demolition Man: Harold Pinter and 'The Homecoming' ". New Yorker 24 Dec. 2007, "Onward and Upward with the Arts". Print. New Yorker. New Yorker Magazine, 16 Dec. 2007. Web. 16 Dec. 2007. (Advance online version: 6 pages online; 7 pages in printout.)

"Letter of Motivation for the European Theatre Prize". 10th Edition of the Europe Theatre Prize to Harold Pinter ("X Premio Europa per il teatro a Harold Pinter"). premio-europa.org. Europe Theatre Prize, Turin, Italy, 8–12 Mar. 2006. Web. 10 Mar. 2009.

Lyall, Sarah. "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S." New York Times. New York Times Company, 8 Dec. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Correction appended 10 Dec. 2005: "An article on Thursday about the playwright Harold Pinter's criticism of American foreign policy in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for literature described it incompletely. He said that both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair - and not just Prime Minister Blair - should be tried before the International Criminal Court of Justice for the invasion of Iraq."]

Mbeki, Thabo. "Letter from the President: Hail the Nobel Laureates - Apostles of Human Curiosity!". ANC Today ("Online Voice of the African National Congress") 5.42 (21–27 Oct. 2005). African National Congress, 12 Nov. 2007. Web.

[McDowell, Leslie.] "Book Festival Reviews: Pinter at 75: The Anger Still Burns: Harold Pinter". The Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 5. Print. The Scotsman Publications Limited (Johnston Press Plc), (updated) 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Merritt, Susan Hollis. "(Anti-)Global Pinter." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 140–67. Print.

–––. "Betrayal in Denver." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 187–201. Print.

–––. "Europe Theatre Prize Celebration -- Turin, Italy." Harold Pinter Society Newsletter, Fall 2006. Web. (Downloadable electronic document sent to members.)

–––. "Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes: Political/Personal Echoes of the Holocaust." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 1999 and 2000. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2000. 73–84. Print.

–––. Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter. 1990. Durham and London: Duke UP, 1995. ISBN 0822316749 (10). ISBN 9780822316749 (13). Print.

–––. "Pinter Playing Pinter: The Hothouse." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 1995–1996. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1997. 73–84. Print.

–––. "Talking about Pinter." (On the Lincoln Center Festival 2001: Harold Pinter Festival Symposia.) The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2001 and 2002. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2002. 144–67. Print.

Moss, Stephen. "The Guardian Profile: Harold Pinter: Under the Volcano". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 4 Sept. 1999. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"The Nobel Prize for Literature 2005: Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, [2005–2009]. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. (Index of articles; some part of "Special Reports: The Nobel Prize for Literature" in 2005.)

"Palestinian Nation Under Threat". Independent. Independent News & Media, 21 July 2006. World Wide Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

Parini, Jay. "Theater: Pinter's Plays, Pinter's Politics". Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle Rev. Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 Nov. 2005. World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (3 pages.)

"People". Time . Time Inc., 11 Aug. 1975. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Archived in the Time Archive: 1923 to the Present.] (Page 1 of 2 pages.)

Pilger, John. "The Silence of Writers". ZNet. Z Communications, 16 Oct. 2005. Web. 5 July 2006.

"Pinter Honoured for a Lifetime's Contribution to the Arts". University of Leeds press release. University of Leeds, 13 Apr. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2007.

"Pinter Wins Nobel Literary Prize". BBC News . BBC, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

"Protesters Will Defy Ban on Anti-Bush Demo on Sunday 15 June". Socialist Worker Online (UK). Socialist Worker, 14 June 2008. Web. 12 June 2008.

Pryce-Jones, David. "Harold Pinter's Special Triteness: Harold Pinter Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature." National Review 7 Nov. 2005. National Review Online (National Review, Inc.), 28 Oct. 2005. Web. 3 Mar. 2009. Rpt. in "News Publications: 2005 Ad". BNET: Business Network. FindArticles (Gale Cengage Learning), 2008. CBS Interactive, Inc., 2009. Web. 7 Mar. 2009. (3 pages.)

Quigley, Austin E. "Pinter, Politics and Postmodernmism (I)." 7–27 in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Print.

Reddy, E. S. "Free Mandela: An Account of the Campaign to Free Nelson Mandela and All Other Political Prisoners in South Africa." African National Congress (ANC): Documents: History of Campaigns. African National Congress, July 1988. Web. 5 Jan. 2009.

Riddell, Mary. "Comment: Prophet without Honour: Harold Pinter Can Be Cantankerous and Puerile. But He Is a Worthy Nobel Prizewinner." Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 11 Dec. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Robertson, Campbell. "In Search of Her Inner Kangaroo Suit: Eve Best Storms Broadway and New York." New York Times, 24 Dec. 2007, The Arts: E1, 6. 24 Dec. 2007. Print. New York Times Company, 24 Dec. 2007. Web. 24 Dec. 2007. (Interview with actress Eve Best [Ruth in The Homecoming (Cort Theatre)].)

Robinson, David. "Books: Doyle Returns to an Old Favourite in New Work; . . . Harold Pinter". Scotsman, Living. Scotsman, 28 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

–––. "I'm Written Out, Says Controversial Pinter". Scotsman 26 Aug. 2006: 6. Print. Scotsman, 26 Aug. 2006. Web. 26 Aug. 2006.

Sheffield Theatres. "Latest News: August 2006: Sheffield Theatres Presents Pinter: A Celebration". Press release. Sheffield Theatres, 18 Aug. 2006. Web. 7 Jan. 2009.

Shenton, Mark. "Pinter in Turin". Stage Blogs: Shenton's View. Stage Newspaper Limited, 11 Mar. 2006. Web. 15 Mar. 2009.

Smith, Alastair. "Pinter Replaces Mandelson as Central President". Stage. Stage Newspaper Limited, 14 Oct. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2008.

Smith, Martin J. "My Diary of Pinter's Homecoming". Guardian, Arts Blog – Theatre. Guardian Media Group, 16 Mar. 2007. Web. 16 Mar. 2007.

Smith, Neil. " 'Political element' to Pinter Prize?" BBC News. BBC, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Smith, Susan Harris. " 'Pinteresque' in the Popular Press." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 103–108. Print.

Sofer, Andrew. "The Cheese-Roll under the Cocktail Cabinet: Pinter's Object Lessons." The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 2003 and 2004. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2004. 29–38. Print.

"Special Report: The Nobel Prize for Literature: 2005 Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 2 Oct. 2007. World Wide Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Features links relating to Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. [Periodically updated and re-located.])

Swedish Academy. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005: Harold Pinter". Nobelprize.org. Swedish Academy and Nobel Foundation, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. (Hyperlinked account. Provides links to the official Nobel Prize announcement, Bio-bibliography, Bibliography, press release, press conference, and audio and video streaming media files of the press conference and related interviews and features. These resources are accessible on the official websites of both the Nobel Prize (Nobel Foundation) and the Swedish Academy; they are periodically revised and re-located.)

Taylor-Batty, Mark. "Fling Open Door and Let Pinter's Pause Be Heard." Times Higher Education Supplement 27 Apr. 2007: 12. Print.

Thomson, David T. Pinter: The Player's Playwright. London: Macmillan, 1985. New York: Schocken, 1985. ISBN 0805239642. Print.

Toíbín, Colm. "Pinter Takes On Beckett". Daily Telegraph. News International, 7 Oct. 2006. Web. 3 Oct. 2007. ("As Harold Pinter prepares to tackle 'Krapp's Last Tape', novelist Colm Toíbín looks forward to a meeting of two theatrical giants.")

Traub, James. "The Way We Live Now: Their Highbrow Hatred of Us". New York Times Mag.. New York Times Company, 30 Oct. 2005. Web. 30 Oct 2005. (Site registration may be required.)

"Travel Advisory: Toronto Festival Honors 14 Leaders in the Arts". New York Times (Archive). New York Times Company, 9 Sept. 2001. Web. 4 Oct. 2007. (Site registration may be required.)

Wardle, Irving. "The Birthday Party." Encore 5 (July–Aug. 1958): 39–40. Rpt. in The Encore Reader: A Chronicle of the New Drama. Ed. Charles Marowitz, Tom Milne, and Owen Hale. London: Methuen, 1965. 76–78. Print. (Reissued as: New Theatre Voices of the Fifties and Sixties. London: Eyre Methuen, 1981.)

–––. "Comedy of Menace." Encore 5 (Sept.–Oct. 1958): 28–33. Rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 86–91. Print.

–––. "Pinter, Harold." 657–58 in The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Ed. John Gassner and Edward Quinn. New York: Crowell, 1969. Print.

"There's Music in That Room." Encore 7 (July–Aug. 1960): 32–34. Rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 129–32. Print.

Wästberg, Per. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005: Presentation Speech". Nobelprize.org. The Nobel Foundation and The Swedish Academy, 10 December 2005. Web, 2 Oct. 2007. (Full text; links to video clips of the Nobel Ceremony provided online.)

West, Samuel. "Fathers and Sons". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 17 Mar. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. ["How does it feel to act in a Pinter play for radio alongside the man himself? Samuel West reveals all."]

Wilfred Owen Association Newsletter 4 Aug. 2004. Print.

Woolf, Henry. "My 60 Years in Harold's Gang". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 12 July 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2007.

Multimedia resources[edit]

Brantley, Ben. "A Master of Menace" (audio file). Hyperlinked in "Multimedia". In "Harold Pinter". New York Times, Times Topics. New York Times Company, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 9 Oct. 2007.

BWW News Desk. "Photo Flash: No Man's Land at the Duke of York....Photos by Jeremy Whelehan". BroadwayWorld.com. Broadway World, 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Dec. 2008.

Celebration (2000). More 4. Channel Four, London. Television. Channel 4, 26 Feb. 2007. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. (Includes video clips of filmed stage prod.; first broadcast Feb. 2007.)

Harold Pinter: Art, Truth & Politics: The Nobel Prize Lecture. © Copyright 2006 Illuminations. All Rights Reserved. Transmission Channel 4, 2005. DVD. 46 mins. (DVD and VHS video recordings. Catalogue listing.) 2 Oct. 2007. [Features preview video clip.]

"Harold Pinter Slideshow". "Harold Pinter". New York Times, Times Topics. New York Times Company, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 9 Oct. 2007. [Hyperlinked in "Multimedia".]

"The Hothouse". By Harold Pinter. Dir. Ian Rickson. Lyttelton Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London, 11 July – 27 Oct. 2007. National Theatre Online (Royal National Theatre), n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Features NT Video clip of stage prod.]

Mondello, Bob, and Robert Siegel. "Remembrances: An Appreciation of Harold Pinter". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. 25 Dec. 2008. 25 Dec. 2008. [Hyperlinked audio clip; 3 mins., 42 secs.]

"Playwright Harold Pinter Dies". BBC News. BBC, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008. [Features photographs and video.] (See selection of Obituaries below.)

Moonlight and Voices. Harold Pinter Double Bill. BBC Radio 3 Drama Programmes — Drama on 3. BBC, 15 Feb. 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2009. [First broadcast 10 Oct. 2005, as part of Pinter's 75th birthday celebration. (See Voices, as listed above in #Works). Re-broadcast 15 Feb. 2009, as part of Harold Pinter Tribute. (Streaming audio accessible for 7 days after broadcasts).]

"Press Releases & Press Packs" for Pinter at the BBC. BBC Press Office, 3 Oct. 2002. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Rose, Charlie. "An Appreciation of Harold Pinter". The Charlie Rose Show. WNET, New York, 2 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2009. [Rebroadcast of the interview with Pinter conducted on 1 Mar. 2007, introduced as "An appreciation of English dramatist, actor and theater director Harold Pinter who died on December 24, 2008" ("In memoriam"). (52 mins., 52 secs.; buffered.)]

Sleuth. Sony Pictures Classics. Sony Pictures, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. [Features video clip of film trailer.]

Sleuth at IMDb. IMDb.com, (updated) 2009. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. [Features updated news and video clips, including film trailer.]

Tamara's Return (1998) at IMDb. Episode 4 of Season 2 (204). Dawson's Creek: The Complete Second Season. DVD. Sony Pictures, (released) 16 Dec. 2003. Web. 2 Oct. 2007.

Tennant, Neil, and Chris Lowe (The Pet Shop Boys). "Up Against It". Song lyrics. petshopboys.co.uk: The Official Site. 2 Oct. 2007. ["Browse all lyrics alphabetically" accessible via "Lyric of the day: Read more". Requires Adobe Flash Player 8 or above.]

Working With Pinter. Dir. Harry Burton. First televised on More 4, Channel 4 (UK), 26 Feb. 2007. Repeated 9 Mar. 2007. Web. 2 Oct. 2007. (Program listing. Features Windows Media Player video clip.) [Screened at Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter, University of Leeds, 12 Apr. 2007; at the East End Film Festival, at Genesis Mile End Cinema, London, 23 Apr. 2007; and at the The End of the Pier International Film Festival, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, 1 May 2007.]

Obituaries and related articles[edit]

Abbott, Diane. "Diane Abbott Calls for Pinter Cinema". DianeAbbott.org.uk. Diane Abbott Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (site funded from the Parliamentary Members Communications Allowance), 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009. Press release.

Adams, Stephen. "Harold Pinter Directs His Own Funeral". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Jan. 2009. ["His plays were masterpieces of artistic control. And even at his own funeral Harold Pinter made sure he exerted a director's influence."]

Alderman, Geoffrey. "Editorial: Harold Pinter - A Jewish View". Current Viewpoint. Current viewpoint.com, 27 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2009.

Andrews, Jamie. " 'Tender the dead, as you yourself would be tendered...' ". Harold Pinter Archive Blog: British Library Curators on Cataloguing the Pinter Archive. British Library, 6 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Jan. 2009.

Baker, Terry. "Harold Pinter and the Sports Field." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 10. Print.

Billington, Michael. "Goodnight, Sweet Prince: Shakespearean Farewell to Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

–––. "Harold Pinter". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

British Library. "Harold Pinter (1930–2008)". Harold Pinter Archive Blog: British Library Curators on Cataloguing the Pinter Archive. British Library, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2009.

Brooks, Melvyn. "A Memory of Harold Pinter." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 14. Print.

Cavendish, Dominic. "Harold Pinter: How the Theatre World Saw Him". Telegraph, Blogs. Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009. (Reprints an article that Cavendish "compiled for the Telegraph shortly after Pinter turned 70 – back in Ocober 2000 – on the eve of the 40th anniversary reval of 'The Caretaker', the play which catapulted him to fame and fortune."]

Cohen, Nick. "Pinter Was Powerful and Passionate, But Often Misguided". Observer, "Comment is Free". Guardian Media Group, 28 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Coveney, Michael. "Harold Pinter: A Celebration, National Theatre, London: Some Pauses to Remember". Independent. Independent News and Media, 9 June 2009. Web. 9 June 2009.

Daily Mail Reporter. "Breaking News: Nobel Prize-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies Aged 78". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008. [Updated on 26 Dec. 2008 by Greenhill.]

Dodds, Paisley (Associated Press). "Nobel-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies at 78". ABC News. American Broadcasting Company, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

Dorfman, Ariel. "The World That Harold Pinter Unlocked". Washington Post. Washington Post, 27 Dec. 2008, A15. Print. The Washington Post Company, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 9 Jan. 2009.

–––. " 'You want to free the world from oppression?' ". New Statesman, Jan. 2009. New Statesman, 8 Jan. 2009. World Wide Web. 9 Jan. 2009. ["Ariel Dorfman on the life and work of Harold Pinter (1930–2008)."]

Driscoll, Margarette. "Yo, Grandpa Pinter, Big Respect". Times Online. News International (News Corporation), 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. [Concerns the poem "Grandpa", © Simon Soros 2008, listed below.]

Eden, Richard. "Harold Pinter Faces Opposition to Memorial in Poet's Corner". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 3 Jan. 2009. Web. 3 Jan. 2009.

Edgar, David. "Pinter's Weasels". Guardian, "Comment is Free". Guardian Media Group, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009. ["The idea that he was a dissenting figure only in later life ignores the politics of his early work."]

"Editorial: Harold Pinter: Breaking the Rules". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 Mar. 2009. ["Pinter broke the rules in art and in life."]

Edwardes, Jane. "Time Out's Tribute to Harold Pinter". Time Out London, Theatre. Time Out Group Ltd., 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 May 2009.

Fenton, Anna, and Lucy Jackson. "Harold Pinter: A Look Back". Journal. The Edinburgh Journal Limited, 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2009.

"Friends Bid Pinter Farewell". BBC News. BBC, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009.

Greenhill, Sam. "Theatreland in Mourning As Nobel Prize-winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dies Aged 78". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

Gussow, Mel, and Ben Brantley."Harold Pinter, Playwright of the Pause, Dies at 78". New York Times. New York Times Company, 25 Dec. 2008, Theater. Web. 26 Dec. 2008. [Web version of article listed below.]

–––. "Harold Pinter, Whose Silences Redefined Drama, Dies at 78." New York Times 26 Dec. 2008, national ed., sec. A: 1, A22–23. Print. [Cites "Online: A Pinter Appraisal: An audio evaluation by Ben Brantley, reviews of Mr. Pinter's plays and more". Print version of article listed above.]

"Harold Pinter". Economist, People: Obituary. The Economist Group, 30 Dec. 2008. Web. 15 Jan. 2009. ["Harold Pinter, playwright and polemicist, died on December 24, aged 78."]

"Harold Pinter Mourned by PEN". English PEN, News. English Centre of International PEN, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. [Includes an introductory tribute written by Jonathan Heawood and a selection of messages received from around the world.]

"Harold Pinter 1930 – 2008". National Theatre, Theatre News. National Theatre, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009.

"Harold Pinter 1930–2008: Great Playwright, Nobel Laureate – and TLS Cricketer". Times Literary Supplement. News International (News Corporation), 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 9 Jan. 2009.

"Harold Pinter: One of the Most Influential British Playwrights of Modern Times". Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009.

"Harold Pinter Tribute". Granta. Granta, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Jan. 2009.

"In Memoriam: Harold Pinter". The Pinter Centre for the Study of Performance and Creative Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London. Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2009.

Jacobson, Howard. "Opinion: Howard Jacobson: Harold Pinter Didn't Get My Joke, and I Didn't Get Him – Until It Was Too Late". Independent. Independent News and Media, 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2009.

Jamieson, Alastair. "Nobel Laureate Playwright Harold Pinter Dies". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 May 2009. ["Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and political activist, has died of liver cancer aged 78." (Includes links to several other related articles.)]

Kamm, Oliver. "Harold Pinter: An Impassioned Artist Who Lost Direction on the Political Stage". Times. News International (News Corporation), 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Lafferty, Julia. "Pinter – A Man of Principle". Hackney Gazette, Letters. Archant, 7 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009.

Marowitz, Charles. "Harold Pinter: 1930 – 2008". Swans, Commentary. Swans, 29 Dec. 2008 – 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2009.

McCallum, John. "Companies Recall Good Ghost of Pinter". Australian. News Limited, 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2009.

Miller, Lionel. "The Lost Librarian." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 5. Print.

Morgan, Clare. "Festival Joins Forces for Free Pinter Tribute". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital, 28 Jan.2009. Web, 28 Jan. 2009.

"MP Backs Pinter Tribute Campaign". Hackney Gazette, News. Archant, 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009.

"Obituary: Harold Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

"Pinter Ends It All with a Double Plot". Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 4 Jan. 2009.

Sands, Sarah. "Opinion: Sarah Sands: Pinter's Funeral – More Final Reckoning Than Reconciliation". Independent. Independent News and Media, 4 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2009.

Sherwin, Adam. "Portrait of Harold Pinter Playing Cricket To Be Sold at Auction". Times. News International, 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Mar. 2009.

Smith, Alastair. "Pinter to be Honoured Before Final Performance of No Man's Land". Stage, News. Stage Newspaper Group Ltd, 2 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2009.

Soros, Simon. "Grandpa". Sunday Times. News International (News Corporation), 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 Jan. 2009. (© Simon Soros 2008). [See hyperlinked account by Driscoll listed above and The Pinter Review publication listed below.]

–––. "Grandpa." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 1. Print.

Stothard, Peter. "Harold Pinter: Exit a Master". Times Literary Supplement (TLS. News International (News Corporation), 7 Jan. 2009. Web. 8 Jan. 2009. [Rpt. from blog of TLS ed. Peter Stothard; first posted on 25 Dec. 2008.]

Supple, Barry. "Harold Pinter – Some Memories." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 6–7. Print. [This memorial tribute consists of "edited excerpts" from Supple's autobiography, Doors Open (Cambridge, Eng.: Asher, 2008). ISBN 0956005705 (10). ISBN 9780956005700 (13). Print.]

Taylor, Jean (Hersh). "Of Harold Pinter and Joseph Brearley." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 18. Print.

Taylor-Batty, Mark, comp. "In Memoriam: Harold Pinter". Harold Pinter Society Webpages. The Harold Pinter Society, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Jan. 2009. ["Harold Pinter - playwright, poet, actor, director, political activist - died on 24 December 2008, aged 78 ... Here are a few of the obituaries and commentaries released by the international press and online theatre community." (Contains "Key links" and a hyperlinked "Full list" periodically being updated.)]

Thomas, Edward. "Theatre Talk with Edward Thomas: The End of the Pauses." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 9. Print. [Rpt. by permission of Theatre Monthly Encore.]

"Times Obituary: Harold Pinter". Times. News International (News Corporation), 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008.

Ulaby, Neda. "Remembrances: Remembering Influential Playwright Harold Pinter". Day to Day. National Public Radio, 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Dec. 2008. [Includes audio clip.]

Wainwright, Hilary. "In Words and Silences". Red Pepper. Red Pepper magazine, Dec. 2008. Web. 3 Jan. 2009. ["Hilary Wainwright reflects on Harold Pinter and Red Pepper."]

Walker, Peter, David Smith, and Haroon Siddique. "Harold Pinter: Tributes Pour In After Death of Dramatist Aged 78". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Jan. 2009. ["Multi-award winning playwright lauded by dignitaries of theatrical and political spheres. … Tributes are being paid to the playwright Harold Pinter today from both the theatrical and political worlds after his death from cancer, aged 78."]

Watkins, G. L. "Harold Pinter, CH, CBE. 10th October 1930 – 24th December 2008 (Hackney Downs School, 1942–1948, Hammond House, Prefect)," "Memorable Phrasings," and "Elsewhere in the World." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 4; 8; 11. Print.

–––, ed. The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 1–36. Print. [This issue contains several memorial tributes to Pinter and to other departed former classmates; on Pinter, see Baker, Miller, Supple, Taylor, Thomas, Yeates, and Watkins.]

"West End Pays Tribute to Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 1 Jan. 2009. [Includes video clip.]

Westwood, Matthew. "Blanchett Stars in Free Play". Australian. News Limited, 27 Jan. 2009. Web, 28 Jan. 2009.

Winer, Linda. "Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter Dead at 78". Newsday. Newsday Inc., 25 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Jan. 2009.

Yeates, Binnie (Yankovitch). "Harold Pinter – Romeo – 1948". Rpt. in "Romeo," by Jamie Andrews. Harold Pinter Archive Blog. British Library, 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2009. Rpt. from "Harold Pinter Romeo and Juliet – 1948." The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (Mar. 2009): 8. Print. [Reproduced with permission of the author.]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

  • HaroldPinter.orgThe Official Website for the International Playwright Harold Pinter (Home and index page).


Category:Bibliographies by author Category:Bibliographies by subject