Conversations with Pinter / Mel Gussow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008.

Contributor:

Gussow, Mel.

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

The Library of Chaim Potok (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008--Interviews.

Pinter, Harold.

Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008.

Dramatists, English--20th century--Interviews.

Dramatists, English.

Playwriting.

Genre:

Interviews.

Biographies.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Potok, Adena (donor) (Potok Collection copy)

Physical Description:

158 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Grove Press, [1996]

Summary:

For more than twenty years, Mel Gussow, a drama critic for the New York Times, has been meeting Harold Pinter to talk about work and life, plays and people. At the core of this book is a series of lengthy interviews - some of the most extensive that Pinter has ever given - all published here in full for the first time. Pinter and Gussow first meet in 1971, when Old Times is a new play and Pinter's status as a major writer is still being confirmed. Then come public and private conversations in the eighties, when the voice of Pinter's political commitment is first heard. And finally, over a period of a week in September 1993, the two talk after the London premiere of Pinter's latest play, Moonlight. Here the playwright is in a more mellow mood, happy to contemplate his early life and to admit to a political agenda behind such plays as The Birthday Party. Through these and other revealing insights, he allows us to see the complete arc of his work to date in its true light. The resulting book is one of the most thoughtful and intimate portraits of the writer yet to appear. In fact, it is a kind of self-portrait, since, intentionally, it is Pinter who does most of the talking. Though famously reticent on the subjects of his work and his private life, Pinter opens up for Gussow in a manner both beguilingly frank and refreshingly informative.

Contents:

Introduction

'Something to do with the sofa?'

'Two people in a pub ... talking about the past'

'Stan, don't let them tell you what to do'

[Silence, followed by audience laughter]

'Even old Sophocles didn't know what was going to happen next'

Afterword.

Notes:

Originally published in Great Britain by Nick Hern Books Ltd. in 1994.

Includes index.

Local Notes:

Potok Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries by Adena Potok.

ISBN:

080213467X

9780802134677

OCLC:

34319275