NEGATIVE BIO I looked up a biography of a writer recently and, in return, I got a printed bio written by someone who, it seems, got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning! The bio writer listed just about everything negative concerning the subject other than a simple statement of his name and a mention of his latest literary achievement of about one year ago.
I'm going to list those "no-no" items, given just to see how soon you can guess who the subject might have been.
When I got into the article I began to wonder if I really wanted to know any more about the subject or not. How can anything worthwhile, I wondered, come from a background of such weird circumstances?
This man was born in Hackney, London-town, England in 1930. That gives you his age so you can fit him into a certain level of literary time, if you like. He was the only son of immigrant Jews who ran a small tailoring shop in Stoke Newington. When the bombing of London began during World War II, his parents packed the boy off to a haven of supposed safety haven from the blitz nights then the shower of rockets.
It is recorded that during that period he lived in "a deserted castle" in Cornwall with twenty-seven other boys deposited there by their parents for the duration of said war. It is said he returned from his stay in Cornwall "with a passion for the works of Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway." He found what seemed to be his niche in acting. He appeared in several school productions at Hackney Grammar School. He accepted a grant to study at London's " Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts" but he dropped out of that prestigious college.
Upon doing so he found himself in Court in 1949 for refusing to complete his National Service obligations declaring himself to be a constitutions objector. He was fined, but wasn't required to serve any confinement time. n 1950 he published his first poems.
You may have guessed his identity by this time. I had not.
His first play "The Room" was published in 1957. His first full-length play "The Birthday Party" was a West End production the next year! Now, you've tagged him! Harold Pinter, poet, playwright, actor, director - and perpetual critic, it sees to me , of every thing and every one. Reviews for the play were dismal. It closed after one week, but nothing seemed to deter Harold Pinter, who then wrote his second full-length drama - "The Caretaker". It made the grade for him in 1960. Prime Minister John Major offered him a Knighthood, but Pinter turned him down. I do not know what words Pinter used to refuse such an honor, but the records clearly show that he has called the present PM - Tony Blair - among other things - "a deluded idiot". He calls our President George W. Bush "a mass murderer." No one seems to like Harold Pinter except the Swedish Academy which awarded him a Noble prize valued at 1.28 million dollars for being "the towering figure" of English drama.
Bad luck continues to haunt this caustic man of letters. In 2002 he was found to have cancer of the esophagus. I was reading some of his recent retorts, comments, Kafka-like connectives, Hemingway he-man shadows and other clutter he stays snagged upon.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 7-29-06 [c586wds]
