Harold Pinter Archive Blog

A method in the madness

Organising the archive of a woman who, according to her biographer, was prone to flinging papers in the air in fits of exasperation is not easy. My first task was to survey the archive, listing the contents of each box in the hope of discovering some semblance of what we archivists call ‘original order’.

 

Background research is also helpful. From looking at the Library’s records and contacting people involved in the acquisition, I pieced together the custodial history of the archive from its first home in Peggy’s offices to the premises of her lawyer, where it was independently valued before coming to the Library. During the packing process some of the papers had been put into new folders and relabelled. This was not done by Peggy’s staff which explains why the titles sometimes bear scant relation to their contents! This was a useful discovery because I’m aiming to describe the papers as they were created and used and therefore labels that are not contemporaneous aren’t significant.

 

There is a delicate balance to be struck between preserving the original structure of an archive and producing a logical arrangement. Peggy was a great fan of alphabetical filing, everything went in together – client files and general correspondence. I have altered the arrangement slightly, separating client files from correspondence as these are clearly two separate series. Preserving original order isn’t purely about keeping physical arrangement intact, it is about discerning the different activities and functions that Peggy undertook.

 

I am currently working on cataloguing the series of client files. These vary wildly in size and structure depending on how prolific a writer was and to what degree Peggy intervened in their life. Most client files contain correspondence arranged in a vaguely chronologically manner and divided between personal correspondence, stage work, tv and radio, film, publication and individual files for key productions. Rarely are these in perfect order and the survey list helps me to identify the many misfiled papers.

 

Having started at the beginning of the alphabet I have worked my way from John Arden and Alan Ayckbourn through to Robert Bolt and am now moving on to Edward Bond and Howard Brenton. The archive sheds light on the networks that grew up between Peggy’s clients but more about this next week.

 

 

Not just a playwrights' agent

The archive reflects writers’ work for television, radio and film as well as the stage. Peggy Ramsay also dealt with stage and screen rights for novelists Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark and Jean Rhys.

Peggy did not confine herself to representing writers. Her client list also includes director Lindsay Anderson, designers Tim O’Brien, Tazeena Firth, Alan Tagg, Robert Harris, Reece Pemberton and John Byrne and composers Carl Davis, Ron Grainer and Nick Bicat.

Download Peggy Ramsay client list

Harold Pinter's snaps

This week I have had the pleasure of leafing through Harold Pinter’s photographs. Sadly, there are no holiday snaps to be found in the albums, but there are lots of other interesting photos. Some of the many highlights include a couple of photos of Pinter as an 18 year old in a school production of Romeo and Juliet, playing the title role; a rare shot of Pinter in his repertory days, playing the uninvited guest in The Uninvited Guest in Colchester, 1955; and colour photographs of Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud in No Man’s Land in 1976. There are also some very familiar faces in the albums – John Hurt as a sprightly 23 year old in the first stage presentation of The Dwarfs in 1963; Judi Dench in the 1982 premiere of A Kind of Alaska; Bill Nighy in a 1991 production of Betrayal at the Almeida; and Pete Postlethwaite in The Homecoming at the Manchester Royal Exchange in 2002.

The fifteen albums contain photographs of stage, television, film and radio productions of Pinter’s plays from the UK and further afield. They also include images of Pinter in action both as director and actor and stills from some of the films he adapted. True to form, there is an index accompanying the albums so it’s easy to identify which performances are included in which album.

Above, photograph of ‘The Birthday Party’, Israel, 1965 (Album 2).

Pinter's Scrapbooks

I have started the cataloguing of Harold Pinter’s UK and international production scrapbooks this week. The scrapbooks include newspaper cuttings of reviews, copies of articles, production programmes, posters and some photographs. They provide a comprehensive record of how Pinter’s plays, films and directorial offerings were critically received. I was assured by Mr Pinter himself that he had personally compiled the earliest scrapbooks, and the handwriting in the first three volumes seems to confirm this. I can just imagine him at his desk meticulously cutting and pasting (the old fashioned way) into the books.

The scrapbooks are in very good order and do not require any physical rearrangement, which is nice. There are also indexes to most of the volumes that describe what is held in each, with dates. So what have I actually been doing you wonder? Well, I’ve been working through each scrapbook double-checking dates and noting the different languages present. The range of languages I’ve been identifying is testament to the far reach of Pinter’s work, including not only our nearest European neighbours (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch) but also the Scandinavian countries, Turkish, Japanese, Hebrew and Icelandic to name a few!

The scrapbooks series also includes volumes relating to the arts world in general, poetry, political activities and personal matters, which will all be tackled next week.