Add MS 89083/2/1

Various compositions by Michael Goldstein, most of which are not dated.

• 1. 'Poem to H' (autograph), dated 31 January 1992. Written on the back of Goldstein's Immigration Landing Card (completed).
• 2. Autograph poem beginning 'Friends, like blades of grass'. Written on the back of headed paper for The Society of Friends of Jewish Refugees.
• 3. 'A Different Catch' (typed, 3 sheets). Printed onto the back of unrelated material (printed 25 August 2003).
• 4. Untitled, beginning 'I am going blind' (typed, 1 sheet).
• 5. Untitled, beginning 'Joe sat, by the small park' (typed, 1 sheet).
• 6. 'Yesterday' (autograph, 1 sheet). Written on headed paper, Castle Hotel, Windsor.
• 7. 'To H.P.', beginning 'You send your fish to market'. Autograph (1 sheet), written on headed paper, Castle Hotel, Windsor.
• 8. Untitled text fragment that begins with a list of characters ('Jack: Reader about seventy') and scene-setting. Autograph (1 sheet).
• 9. 'The Self-Contained Compartment'. Two texts, both typescript (2 x 2 sheets), identical save for a small (rejected) addition in Goldstein's hand to the earlier typescript. This earlier typescript appears to be, to judge from context and physical appearance (including matching paper folds), the composition that Pinter has typed for Goldstein which is referred to in his letter to Goldstein of 28 June 1955 (in Add MS 89083/1/1/2). Pinter evidently typed the composition twice, since the two typescripts were prepared on different typewriters: the brighter (and later) typescript exhibits a particular off-centred comma that only appears in Pinter's typed letters after July 1956: see Pinter's letter to Goldstein dated 'Friday' [July 1956], in Add MS 89083/1/1/3: 'This typewriter writes and moves as sweet as silk. It's mine. I bought it a couple of weeks ago.' It is, therefore, the typewriter that Vivien Merchant joked about Pinter packing for their honeymoon some two months later - see the letter from Merchant to Goldstein [9 September 1956] in Add MS 89083/1/2/2. 'The Self-Contained Compartment' was subsequently published in Philip Stevick (ed.), Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction (1971), pp. 295-6.
• 10. 'By Balloon'. Two texts, both typescript, exhibiting small differences (6 sheets + 3 sheets).