In Memoriam: Dr. Steven H. Gale

Abstract

I first became acquainted with Steve and his scholarship on Harold Pinter in the late 1970s, when he published his first critical monograph, Butter’s Going Up: A Critical Analysis of Harold Pinter’s Work, in 1977, followed by the volume Harold Pinter: An Annotated Bibliography, in 1978. We began corresponding, leading to my meeting and interviewing him a few years later, in 1982, when I began part of my research for my book Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter (1990, 1995), which involved traveling to interview Pinter scholars in person, in the United States and abroad. With warm hospitality, Steve invited and welcomed me into his and Kathy’s home in Joplin, Missouri, while I conducted and taped our interview in depth, with Kathy providing sustenance for our coffee break and lunch. A main takeaway from our personal interview was how important family was to Steve—how devoted he was as a husband and a father (which is also borne out by the wonderful photos posted online in his memorial “Life Tributes” album, hosted by Harrod Brothers.com). Understanding Steve’s personal values pertaining to family also provided me with insights about thematic emphases in his critical analyses of Pinter’s work.In 1986, during the annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA), Steve brought together a small group of us to discuss forming what would become the Harold Pinter Society, extending my own suggestion of basing it on the example of the Samuel Beckett Society (and the Journal of Beckett Studies [JOBS]), which had been launched in the previous decade. Steve became the Pinter Society’s founding president, marshaling its successful application as an Allied Organization of the MLA (following the Beckett Society), and establishing The Pinter Review, which he co-edited with Dr. Francis X. Gillen, of the University of Tampa, published from 1987 through 2011 (after Steve retired from co-editorship, Dr. Gillen edited its final volume before retiring in turn). The Pinter Review has been succeeded by The Harold Pinter Review: Essays on Contemporary Drama (2017–), reformulated and edited by Dr. Ann C. Hall (University of Louisville), who has also been presiding most recently over the Pinter Society (now known as the International Harold Pinter Society). During the 1986 MLA Convention foundational get-together, knowing that I was working on what became my book Pinter in Play, Steve and Frank invited me to develop what became my “Harold Pinter Bibliography” in The Pinter Review. Steve’s initiatives have led to highly productive and long-lasting professional and personal relationships among colleagues all over the world, connected through our mutual interests in the life and work of Harold Pinter and teaching about the media for which Pinter created work.Over four decades, Steve joined with us in academic conferences and related cultural events throughout the United States and abroad to present papers, share insights and anecdotes over drinks and meals, and get to know one another, leading to still-developing collaborations and intersecting communities, and much-treasured institutional and personal memories. Through his own work on Pinter’s oeuvre, Steve was a prime mover: he led to much of our own scholarship, performances, and productions, across media and cultures, and we will all miss him. My condolences to Kathy and to all of Steve’s lovely family.