Harold Pinter is an English playwright, actor and a film director. Aside from his famous play, The Birthday Party, he is also well-known for The Caretaker and Betrayal, and his "comedies of menace." In his works Pinter uses silences to increase tension and to suggest that unknown truths are being avoided.
Early Life of Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter was born in London to a Jewish family, on October 10, 1930. His father, Hyman Pinter, was a tailor and his mother, Frances Mann Pinter, a homemaker. When he was nine years old, he was evacuated out of the war-torn city and only returned when he was 14. This, combined with growing up in a time of anti-Jewish sentiment, gave him a feeling of being out of place, which is seen in many of his works.
He went to high school at Hackney Downs Grammar School in London and developed a love of literature, particularly the works of Franz Kafka and Ernest Ernest Hemingway. He studied at the famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts but dropped out before the end of the first year. After narrowly avoiding jail for refusing to do National Service, Pinter returned to drama school, at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, this time determined to become an actor.
Pinter the Playwright
It was during a period of unemployment that he wrote his first play, The Room. This was followed by his best known play, The Birthday Party, which he wrote when he was 28, probably still his most famous work. The play deals with an ordinary man who is threatened by strangers for an unknown reason.
Playwright, Actor, and Director
During the 1960s Pinter began to divide his time among stage, television and movie – showing equal talent and winning awards in all three areas. In 1989 he wrote the screenplay for the film The Trial, based on Kafka's famous novel.
Pinter the Political Activist
From the 1990s, Pinter has focused his attention on politics, becoming a strong opponent of censorship. He has spoken about the abuse of state power around the world.
Awards and Recognition
Pinter has had numerous awards. Among them, in 2002, he was made a Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II for services to Literature. In 2005, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Books by Harold Pinter
- Monologue, 1973
- Poems and Prose 1941–1977, 1978
- The Dwarfs: A Novel, 1990, novel
- Various Voices, Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948-1991, 1998
- The Disappeared and Other Poems (2002, poetry)
- War, 2003, poetry
Plays by Harold Pinter
- The Room (1957, one act)
- The Dumbwaiter (1957, one act)
- The Birthday Party, 1958
- The Caretaker, 1960
- The Dumb Waiter, 1960
- The Homecoming, 1965
- Landscape, 1969
- Silence, 1969
- Old Times, 1971
- No Man's Land, 1975
- Betrayal, 1978
- Moonlight, 1993
- Ashes to Ashes, 1995
Sources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby, 1993
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, 1994
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