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Book Cover for: Pinter's World: Relationships, Obsessions, and Artistic Endeavors, William Baker

Pinter's World: Relationships, Obsessions, and Artistic Endeavors

William Baker

Pinter's World presents an analysis based on recently published biographies and reminiscences and extensive consultation of Pinter's archive at the British Library, of his friendships, and obsessions. Topics extend beyond the subject's drama and screen plays, to his prose, journalism, poetry, letters, and artistic endeavors.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
  • Publish Date: Jul 6th, 2021
  • Pages: 282
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.64in - 0.92lb
  • EAN: 9781611479331
  • Categories: English, Irish, Scottish, WelshPoetryModern - 20th Century

About the Author

Baker, William: -

William Baker is Trustee Professor, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of English and University Libraries, at Northern Illinois University, USA. He is the author/editor of numerous books and his co-authored Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History and his The Letters of Wilkie Collins were honoured by Choice as the year's most outstanding books (2006 and 2000).

WILLIAM BAKER is Professor, Department of English, and Professor, University Libraries, at Northern Illinois University. His previous books include Recent Work in Critical Theory, 1989-1995: An Annotated Bibliography (1996), Twentieth-Century Bibliography and Textual Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography (2000), and A Companion to the Victorian Novel (2002), all available from Greenwood Press. He also coedited The Letters of Wilkie Collins (1999), and has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for 2002-2003 to edit another three volumes of Wilkie Collins's letters.

Praise for this book

Drawing on materials recently made available, unpublished, or previously ignored, Baker (Northern Illinois Univ.; also author of A Harold Pinter Chronology, CH, Jun'14, 51-5336) provides a captivating study of the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.