Pinter's World: Pinter and Company is not a full-scale biography but a series of illuminating chapters about Pinter's life, character, and thought, employing new information found in his "Appointment Diaries," recent biographical sources such as Simon Gray's memoirs, and Henry Woolf's reminiscences in addition to personal discussions with several in Pinter's world. This book provides a fresh illumination of Pinter's life and art, his friendships, obsessions, and concerns.Material is arranged around themes, key concerns, Pinter's activities. Pinter's meetings and endeavors, for instance, with whom he met and when, when he wrote what and when, and his perspective at the time are documented. This work explores Pinter's writing: drama, poetry, prose, journalism, and letters, which are here regarded as part of his aesthetic achievement.
Pinter's World: Pinter and Company presents a pointillist portrait of him through examining central concerns in his life. These encompass an obsession with the theater and games; delight in restaurants, demonstrating that Pinter is far removed from the socially awkward isolated figures populating his early work; and the women in Pinter's world. Other areas examined include Pinter's political engagement, from his adolescence to his last years, and the literary and other creative influences upon him. This work draws upon consultation of his papers at the British Library, including letters to others, especially close friends with whom he kept close contact for over half a century. These letters should be regarded on par with his other creative accomplishments. Pinter was a fascinating letter writer, whose letters reveal thoughts at the time of writing often in abrupt most colorful idiomatic language. His "Appointment Diaries" cannot reveal what actually occurred during his meetings, but they do provide a guide to what he did on a daily basis and whom he met. Memories from his friends, his professional colleagues, cricket players, and his second wife, Antonia Fraser, illuminate Pinter's personality and actions. Pinter's first literary love was poetry and, unlike most other Pinter studies, this one gives attention to his neglected poetic output that often reveals the real Pinter and the enigma that is at the heart of every great artist.
Industry Reviews
Drawing on materials recently made available, unpublished, or previously ignored, Baker (Northern Illinois Univ.; also author of A Harold Pinter Chronology, CH, Jun'14, 51-5336) provides a captivating study of the life and work of Pinter (1930-2008). Baker situates Pinter's career in the context of both the personal and the professional, invoking materials that add considerably to previous biographical accounts. The study taps Pinter's diaries, his papers and letters (housed at the British Library), and recent biographical sources (e.g., his friends' memoirs and reminiscences) for new information. Chapters explore Pinter's early career and fascination with theater and film, and his non-theatrical obsessions-including his enjoyment of card games, music, and cricket. Also examined is Pinter's social life, for example his favorite restaurants where he conducted meetings and business and the influence on him of women. One important discussion focuses on Pinter's political engagement and the political dimensions of his writing. A final chapter discusses the writers who influenced Pinter, from Shakespeare and John Webster to Beckett and other 20th-century authors whom Pinter personally knew. Baker's investigation of Pinter's central themes and concerns provides an illuminating portrait of this fascinating writer.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *
