October 14, 2005
The leading British playwright Harold Pinter has won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. Pinter was the foremost representative of drama in post-war Britain, the Swedish Academy's jury said. The laureate "restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles", it added. Pinter, who has just turned 75, was born in the London borough of Hackney, the son of a Jewish dressmaker. During his youth he experienced anti-Semitism, which he said had been important in his decision to become a dramatist. The author of more than 30 plays, Pinter also wrote poetry, prose and screen adaptations and has occasionally directed for the stage as well as acting in films and plays. He made his playwriting debut in 1957, with The Room. His conclusive breakthrough came with The Caretaker in 1959, followed by The Homecoming in 1964.
