Harold Pinter

Author profile

born

in Hackney, London, England, The United Kingdom

October 10, 1930

died

December 24, 2008

gender

male

website

http://www.haroldpinter.org

genre

Literature & Fiction, Theater

influences

Samuel Beckett, Luis Buñuel, Franz Kafka, Wilfred Owen, Marcel Proust,...more

About this author

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Harold Pinter, CH, CBE, was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, political activist and poet. He was one of the most influential playwrights of modern times. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

After publishing poetry and acting in school plays as a teenager in London, Pinter began his professional theatrical career in 1951, touring throughout Ireland. From 1952, he acted in repertory companies throughout England for about a dozen years, using the stage name David Baron in the late 1950s. Beginning with his first play, The Room (1957), Pinter's writing career spanned over 50 years and produced 29 original stage plays, 27 screenplays, many dramatic sketches, radio and TV plays, poetry, one novel, short fict...more Harold Pinter, CH, CBE, was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, political activist and poet. He was one of the most influential playwrights of modern times. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

After publishing poetry and acting in school plays as a teenager in London, Pinter began his professional theatrical career in 1951, touring throughout Ireland. From 1952, he acted in repertory companies throughout England for about a dozen years, using the stage name David Baron in the late 1950s. Beginning with his first play, The Room (1957), Pinter's writing career spanned over 50 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 plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted to film. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include 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. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, 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.

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. Thematically ambiguous, they raise complex issues of individual identity oppressed by social forces, language, and vicissitudes of memory. In 1981, Pinter stated that he was not inclined to write plays explicitly about political subjects; 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. Pinter, his work, and his politics have been the subject of voluminous critical commentary.

Pinter received numerous awards. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1967 for The Homecoming. He was given BAFTA awards, the French Légion d'honneur and 20 honorary degrees. Festivals and symposia have been devoted to him and his work. In awarding the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy noted, "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'". He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. He was buried the following week at Kensal Green Cemetery in North West London.
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Average rating: 3.82 · 13,545 ratings · 563 reviews · 115 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Homecoming 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 3,001 ratings — published 1965 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Birthday Party 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 2,723 ratings — published 1957 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Betrayal 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 2,092 ratings — published 1978 — 11 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dumb Waiter 3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 916 ratings — published 1957 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Caretaker 3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 886 ratings — published 1960 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Birthday Party & The Room 3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 466 ratings — published 1961 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Complete Works, Vol. 1: The Birthday Party / The Room / The Dumb Waiter / A Slight Ache / A Night Out / The Black and White / The Examination 4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 avg rating — 312 ratings — published 1976 — 7 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Old Times 3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 321 ratings — published 1971 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Caretaker & The Dumb Waiter 3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 259 ratings — published 1960 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Complete Works, Vol. 4: Old Times / No Man's Land / Betrayal / Monologue / Family Voices 4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 avg rating — 164 ratings — published 1981 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Harold Pinter

Complete Works (4 books)
by Harold Pinter
4.255144032921811 of 5 stars 4.26 avg rating — 729 ratings

Quotes by Harold Pinter

“One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.”
― Harold Pinter, Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics

tags: life

498 people liked it

“There are some things one remembers even though they may never have happened.”
― Harold Pinter

tags: false, falsehood, memory, recollection, truth

294 people liked it

“I know the place.
It is true.
Everything we do
Corrects the space
Between death and me
And you.”
― Harold Pinter

tags: poetry

46 people liked it

See all Harold Pinter's quotes »

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Herta Müller

3 votes, 30.0%

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2 votes, 20.0%

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1 vote, 10.0%

Harold Pinter

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Harold Pinter's Books