Add MS 89094/3

Twenty-one communications from Pinter to Woolf:

• 1. London, 19 February 1954 (postmark). Pinter to Woolf ('Buttonholemaker', Exeter). Autograph lettercard.
• 2. Hackney, Thurs. [May 1954 - postmark]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (2 sheets, with envelope). 'The job business never so pernicious. Have washed up - Now waiter in the National Liberal Club - but no pickings'. Missing Pauline.
• 3. Saturday [?May 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (3 sheets). The mood of the letter (I don't see how things can get much worse'), and its physical characteristics (paper, pen, hand) strongly suggest that this letter is contemporaneous with the previous letter.
• 4. Hackney, Wed [7 July 1954 - postmark 8 July]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (3 sheets, with envelope). 'I shan't (I don't think) be in London when you return. I've got a job. A farce which goes out on a six week tour and I hope comes into the Westend after that.' Refers to writing The Dwarfs ('there's me seventh chapter giving me indigestion').
• 5. Spa Theatre, Whitby. Friday [?July 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (5 sheets). 'I shall be here till September. I am leading man in a repertory company - summer season.' Concludes: 'David Baron is the name on the envelope.'
• 6. Hackney, Friday [?July 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (3 sheets). Back in London. 'I had a most fine time in Whitby & was absolutely in the gravy.' However, Pinter 'walked out' following an altercation. Making further progress with The Dwarfs (here entitled 'One Final Summer').
• 7. En Voyage, Monday [October 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). Written on the train, traveling to Huddersfield: 'for 6 weeks - Rep.' The letter describes a large party in London the previous weekend. 'The book [The Dwarfs] goes well. Up to Chapter 18.'
• 8. Huddersfield, Wed. [November 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (2 sheets). 'Hallo mate. Here I am in the black North.' Letters to be addressed to David Baron, c/o Philip Barrett Co., Theatre Royal, Huddersfield.
• 9. Theatre Royal, Huddersfield. Wed. [November 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (6 sheets). 'Good part this week - playing a razor boy'. Yesterday Pinter went to Leeds to see Barry Foster 'who's playing there this week'.
• 10. Theatre Royal, Huddersfield. Thurs. [November 1954]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (2 sheets). 'In the opinion of Mr. [Michael]Goldstein (his letter to hand) it is certain that, if, against Queensland, Woolf strikes a length, Wardle & Appleyard can forget about getting a place in the Test side.' (Queensland v MCC, 12-16 November 1954.) Letter signed 'Ivan Karamazov'.
• 11. Colchester Repertory Theatre, Colchester, Essex. Tue. 15 [March 1955]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (7 sheets). 'I came down here last month to play The Shrew, played Orpheus in Point of Departure, and am now staying. The Anouilh was quite something. I got my molars well into it. At present, we're rehearsing Of Mice & Men. I play Curley.' Refers to beginning a relationship with Jill Johnson ('we are very much together, same digs').
• 12. Thurs. [Colchester 12 May 1955 - postmark]. Pinter to Woolf (in Exeter). Autograph lettercard.
• 13. Colchester, Sat., and Mon. [June or early July 1955]. Pinter to Woolf. Typed letter (1 sheet). 'This sunday I go to Ireland (North) with the company, till September. I shall be home sunday for lunch and leave from Euston at 4. If you're home, I'll expect you between 1.30 and 2.30, at my house.'
• 14. Colchester Repertory Company, Portstewart, Co. Derry, N. Ireland. July 18 [1955]. Pinter to Woolf. Typed letter (1 sheet). 'Me? I'm all right all right. My affairs are oiled and in order. At the sea here, sand and whatnot - up my street. With Jill, who graces my life. The south is far off, something across a border, remaining, continual, placed in my blood. But here I am now, to move in September, and then to move some time again.'
• 15. Colchester Repertory Theatre, Colchester, Essex. Nov. 1 and Sunday 6 [November 1955]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (10 sheets). 'It's difficult to believe you are where you say you are' (letter written to Woolf in America, at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, where he is a postgraduate student). Sunday's portion of the letter refers to Samuel Beckett: 'The intellectual climate has been typhooned by Mr. Samuel Beckett. His play, "Waiting for Godot", has hit London in that guise. I know all about him, & have for a long time.'
• 16. Pavilion Theatre, Torquay, Devon. Tues. [October 1956]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (3 sheets). Refers to a 'golden October' and to his marriage to Vivien Merchant (Bournemouth, 14 September 1956).
• 17. Pavilion Theatre, Torquay. Wed 31st [October 1956]. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (7 sheets). Refers to Woolf being at the University of Bristol (course in drama directing), and pours light-hearted cold water over Woolf's studies: 'Scrub the idea right out Woolf. It'll only give you aggravation in the cobblers and cause severe upsets in the old membrane & you'll get kidney trouble.' Proposes that Woolf visits them on Saturday 17 November: 'you could come & see the show in the evening (we've both got the lead that week).'
• 18. Pavilion Theatre, Torquay. Thursday [8 November 1956]. Pinter to Woolf. Typed letter, 1 sheet. 'I'm glad you liked The Examination, mate [....] Kullus is an old oppo of mine. I met him in a billiardhall in Stoke Newington in the days when spring onions were a pound a penny and when with the smallest downpayment you could be up to your eyes in spare tires [sic]. It was all an effortless fiddle then. Of course even then you had to know the right people. But Kullus seemed to know his way about so I stuck to him, and look at where I am now. Look where he is now!' The letter can be dated by reference to Woolf's visit (now Sunday rather than Saturday), and by a passing reference to Russian tanks entering Budapest (4 November 1956): 'Will there be war? I think they're overdoing it. Stuff the Russians for a start.'
• 19. [Torquay, ?late November 1956]. Torn fragment of an autograph lettercard, without date. However, the reference to the 'Man Who Came to Dinner' (written in fountain pen ink that matches letter 16 above) suggests that this communication follows Woolf's visit of 17 or 18 November.
• 20. [Torquay]. Wed [?late November 1956]. Appears to be a letter following Woolf's November visit to Torquay ('Vivien was highly chuffed to make your Woolfian acquaintance').
• 21. 'Sunday 30'. Pinter to Woolf. Autograph letter (18 sheets) of uncertain date. The letter is abstract and philosopical, as well as humorous. It contains a reference (p. 29) to Len Maddocks, who kept wicket for Australia between 1954 and 1956: 'And that makes Len Maddocks second cousin to God Save the King' (p. 29). The reference to 'the King' seems to place this letter earlier than coronation-year 1953, but may simply be a turn of phrase.