Add MS 89094/1

Thirteen letters from Pinter to Woolf. None of the letters are properly dated, although some contain helpful references to external events (cricket, Pinter's attendance at R.A.D.A., his concientious objection to being 'called-up', exhibitions, radio and television broadcasts), and occasionally a communication is accompanied by its original envelope.

• 1. Tuesday [June 1948]. 19 Thistlewaite Road, [London], E.5. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (5 sheets). Refers to having seen the play The Gioconda Smile (by Aldous Huxley) 'on Saturday' (Huxley's play opened 2 June 1948 at the New Theatre, London - Eschelbach and Shober, Aldous Huxley: A Bibliography 1916-1959 (Berkeley 1961), p. 67).
• 2. Thursday [summer 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (7 sheets). Date indicated by reference to England v Australia Test Matches.
• 3. Sunday [?summer 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). Effusive about W. B. Yeats and Henry Miller, with quotations. 'Do come to the club next Saturday because of the L'Age D'Or which I think is on Sunday. You must see it.'
• 4. Monday 6th September [1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). 'Henry, my dear, when I am a great, successful actor we shall form a company. Moishe [Morris Wernick] shall be business manager and stage manager. Jimmy [B. J. Law] will direct. Ron [Percival], you and I will act. And you will also be my artistic adviser and director. It will be a great success. And will give us all something to live on. The theatre is one of the good things of civilization.'
• 5. Tuesday [14 September 1948]. Pinter to Woolf (at R.A.F. Bridgnorth, Shropshire). Autograph letter (2 sheets), with envelope (franked 16 September 1948).
• 6. Wednesday [autumn 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (5 sheets, pen and paper identical to previous letter). 'I am definitely going to be a conscientious objector. That is one thing that is extremely clear to me.' Refers to R.A.D.A.
• 7. Wed. [autumn 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (8 sheets, incomplete). 'I have been barraged by RADA, politics, Ron, and myself.'
• 8. Tuesday [autumn 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). 'I remember when I was first flushed with RADA I thought for a moment you would all drift away from me but now I know it's impossible.' (Autumn dating confirmed by future time reference to Christmas.)
• 9. Monday [autumn 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (3 sheets). 'I've been in an awful state this last week. I want to get away. Not only is R.A.D.A. diseased, the whole city is, everything.' After implying ('disease') Hamlet (also quoted from later in the letter), Pinter quotes (from memory) from Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (Act V Scene V): 'O what a deep pit of darkness'. Pinter subsequently purchased Webster (see letter 12 below).
• 10. Wednesday Evening [autumn 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets, upper portion of p. 5 missing). Listening to Beethoven and to Mozart on the radio, and looking forward to Gielgud's Hamlet to be broadcast at Christmas [live broadcast, 26 December, Third Programme]. 'I did my C.O. [conscientious objection] statement last night. It's forthright and as usual emotional & from mi 'eart.'
• 11. Wednesday [December 1948]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (4 sheets incomplete, pp. [1]-3, 9). 'Home for the holidays.'
• 12. Tuesday [4 January 1949]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (2 sheets). Letter date can be determined by cross-referring two references: Pinter has seen the exhibition '40,000 Years of Modern Art' (ICA, curated by Read and Penrose, 20 December 1948 - 29 January 1949); also, Pinter 'saw the French Ballet on television last night, "Swan Lake", so very lovely' (broadcast 3 January 1949 - see Janet Rowson Davis, 'Ballet on British Television 1948-1949,' Dance Chronicle, 15:2, 1992). Pinter's new-year mood is 'a great babbling mass of confusion', walking about the West End 'in black daze and rebellion'. He 'bought Webster yesterday'. At the ICA exhibition, he was impressed by 'A l'oreilles des voyantes' by Ives Tanguy (1937). The letter ends with a 'Hooray for Dostoievski'.
• 13. Tuesday Evening [Tues 21 December or early 1949]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). Refers to The Tempest: 'Today was the Grande Matinée, and the best thing in it was the exquisite rendering by John Gielgud of "Our revels now are ended". I was moved to tears.' (See Gielgud to Christopher Fry, 6 December 1948: 'I have taken on three weeks' broadcasting of a four hour Hamlet and a Tempest....' - Gielgud's Letters, p. 120.) The BBC recording of The Tempest was made 17 December and first transmitted Monday 20 December 1948 at 21.15 (Home Service). However, Pinter refers specifically to a matinée (a re-transmission?).