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William Baker
William Baker

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News Release

Contact: Tom Parisi, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-3635

October 19, 2005

Pinter's Nobel Prize shines light
on work of NIU researcher

DeKalb, Ill. — A bibliographical history written by Northern Illinois University Professor William Baker is suddenly a hot commodity in the scholarly world, thanks to a Nobel Prize.

Baker, who in 2003 was named a Presidential Research Professor at NIU, didn't win the coveted prize, but he ought to be given a medal for good timing.

In late September, the British Library published “Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History,” by Baker and co-author John C. Ross. Two weeks later, the subject of the book— playwright, poet and author Harold Pinter—won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“ The timing is impeccable,” said Baker, who holds a joint appointment with University Libraries and the Department of English. “With scholarly books, you're lucky to sell more than 1,000 copies. Already the publishers have called for an extra press run.”

Pinter is among the most prolific British authors alive today, with a writing career that spans nearly six decades. His screenplay for the 1981 film, “The French Lieutenant's Woman,” was nominated for an Academy Award, but he is best known for his more than two dozen plays, including “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming” and “The Birthday Party.”

Pinter's career also includes a novel, short stories, non-fiction writing, a significant body of poetry, acting and directing credits and texts created for radio and television.

Baker's bibliographical history provides a comprehensive account of the published writings and also texts in other media that Pinter wholly or partly authored. No author had previously consolidated Pinter's body of work into a comprehensive text for libraries, archives and Pinter enthusiasts. Baker's book also chronicles interviews, recorded in print and other media, and interview-based articles, generated from Pinter's wide-ranging interest in literary projects, human rights and political causes.

A Nobel Prize will work wonders in publicity circles. According to Oak Knoll Press, which published Baker's book in North America: “The sleepy little bibliography obtained an instant, world-wide status as libraries, distributors and collectors from around the world ordered copies.”

Baker and co-author Ross collaborated for more than seven years on the bibliographical history, but the NIU professor's interest in Pinter started decades ago. In 1973, Baker authored a scholarly monograph exploring Pinter's ethnic background and his art, making use of previously unpublished letters and biographical information.

“I began collecting his works as a schoolboy in the 1960s after going to see his plays in Brighton ( England ) and hearing his work over the radio,” said Baker, a British native. “He left a profound impression on me.”

Baker himself has published more than two dozen books and in excess of 130 refereed articles. He is considered the foremost biographer and a leading scholar on the works of George Eliot, the pen name for Victorian writer Mary Ann Evans. She was among the most important British novelists of the 19th century.

“The book on Pinter was much more difficult than the bibliographical history of George Eliot,” Baker said. “With Eliot, you had the publishers' records of volumes produced. With Pinter, whose career began in the 1940s, we were dealing with the pre-electronic age. Publishers' archives, especially in this country, have disappeared because of the changes in technology. Ours is the age of tragically disappearing information, often deleted in technological transformations.

“There were other challenges as well,” Baker added. “Early in his career, Pinter published plays, poems, fiction and non-fiction in small magazines that no longer exist.”

Despite the challenges, Baker and Ross appear to have succeeded by all accounts, including that of Harold Pinter.

“What a piece of work! I'm staggered,” Pinter wrote in a letter to Baker dated Aug. 23. “Apart from anything else, it gives shape to my own life.”

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