Background
Gussow, Mel was born on December 19, 1933 in New York City. Son of Don and Betty Gussow.
( For more than twenty years, Mel Gussow, a drama critic ...)
For more than twenty years, Mel Gussow, a drama critic for the New York Times, has been meeting Harold Pinter to talk about work and life, plays and people. At the core of this book is a series of lengthy interviews - some of the most extensive that Pinter has ever given - all published here in full for the first time. Pinter and Gussow first meet in 1971, when Old Times is a new play and Pinter's status as a major writer is still being confirmed. Then come public and private conversations in the eighties, when the voice of Pinter's political commitment is first heard. And finally, over a period of a week in September 1993, the two talk after the London premiere of Pinter's latest play, Moonlight. Here the playwright is in a more mellow mood, happy to contemplate his early life and to admit to a political agenda behind such plays as The Birthday Party. Through these and other revealing insights, he allows us to see the complete arc of his work to date in its true light. The resulting book is one of the most thoughtful and intimate portraits of the writer yet to appear. In fact, it is a kind of self-portrait, since, intentionally, it is Pinter who does most of the talking. Though famously reticent on the subjects of his work and his private life, Pinter opens up for Gussow in a manner both beguilingly frank and refreshingly informative.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080213467X/?tag=2022091-20
(Drama critic Mel Gussow regularly had conversations with ...)
Drama critic Mel Gussow regularly had conversations with Beckett, from their first encounter in 1978 until shortly before his death in 1989. This is an account of their meetings and discussions of the drama world and life in general. Also included are interviews with colleagues and family.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1854593153/?tag=2022091-20
film critic journalist theatre critic
Gussow, Mel was born on December 19, 1933 in New York City. Son of Don and Betty Gussow.
He attended South Side High School. And Middlebury College, where he served as editor of The Campus, and graduated in 1955 with a Bachelor in American literature.
He earned an Master of Arts from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1956. Gussow was a writer for the Army newspaper in Heidelberg, Germany, where he was stationed for two years. He was hired by Newsweek, where he became a movie and theater critic.
His first Broadway play review was for Who"s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1962.
This review began a lifelong relationship with the play"s author, Edward Albee, that included Gussow"s 1999 biography of the playwright entitled Edward Albee: A Singular Journey. Gussow joined the New York Times in 1969 and over his 35-year career wrote more than 4,000 of the newspaper"s reviews and articles
He authored eight books, including a series of four which were considered "conversations" with playwrights Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard. Times arts reporter Jesse McKinley notes that Gussow"s interview collections became "staples of college drama curriculums and the libraries of gossip-loving theater fans".
In an article written by Gussow on the 30th anniversary of the disaster,
Gussow reported an Federal Bureau of Investigation finding that "had all the explosives detonated, the explosion would have leveled everything on both sides of the street." He and his family remained residents of Greenwich Village after the explosion, maintaining a home on West 10th Street.
Gussow died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital from bone cancer at the age of 71. In 2008, Gussow was inducted posthumously into the American Theater Hall of Fame at the same time as actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, the actors John Cullum, Lois Smith and Dana Ivey, the director Jack O"Brien, the playwright Peter Shaffer, and the librettist Joseph Stein.
( For more than twenty years, Mel Gussow, a drama critic ...)
(Drama critic Mel Gussow regularly had conversations with ...)
(Pages clean and unmarked. Slight wear from time on shelf ...)
On March 6, 1970, the townhouse next door to theirs was destroyed by an explosion of dynamite that killed three and injured two members of the Weathermen organization.
Married Ann Meredith Beebe, August 12, 1963. 1 child, Ethan.