Harold Pinter was born in 1930, and grew up the only child of working-class Jewish parents in North-East London. His education at Hackney Downs Grammar School brought him into a lively-minded group of energetic and intellectually adventurous teachers and fellow-students, in which both theatre and anti-Fascism seem to have been important influences. Against this stimulating background, however, there was the reality of the threat of anti-Semitic violence in London in the immediate post-war years, as Pinter himself has described. Both the intensity of his theatrical voice and the menace that stalks and indeed characterizes his early plays may owe something to this environment. From school, Pinter went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he had an unhappy time before dropping out. In…
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Citation: Wyllie, Andrew. "Harold Pinter". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 June 2002; last revised 30 December 2008. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4985, accessed 22 November 2024.]
