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Collection Overview
Title: Samuel Beckett Papers (MSS008), 1946-1980
Predominant Dates:1946-1980
ID: MSS/MSS/008
Primary Creator: Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)
Extent: 7.0 Boxes
Date Acquired: 08/03/1966
Languages: English, French
Scope and Contents of the Materials
This collection's strengths are in manuscripts of works Beckett wrote during the 1960's. Among the highlights are the set of 16 drafts for the story "Bing," as well as extensive groups of drafts for short pose pieces such as "Assez," "Le Depeupler," and "Imagination morte imaginez;" the heavily revised galley proof of the Olympia Press edition of the novel Watt; and the successive drafts for Play/Comedie. Also, the Beckett Papers contain the correspondence between the bookseller, Henry Wenning, and Beckett, which spans 1960-1971, some photographs and illustrations of Beckett, many of Beckett's notebooks, and photocopies of Beckett manuscripts from the University of Reading.
Collection Historical Note
Samuel Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in France for the most of his adult life. Writing in English and French, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humor. His best-known play, Waiting for Godot (1953) is a comic study of philosophical uncertainty, and, like much of his work, focuses on the absurdity of human existence. Beckett graduated from Dublin's Trinity College in 1927 and settled in Paris, where he worked with James Joyce and published short stories and the novel Murphy (1938). During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and was eventually forced to leave Paris, but after the war he returned and wrote most of his important works, including the prose trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (Malone Meurt, 1951) and The Unnamable (L'Innommable, 1953), and the play Endgame (Fin de Partie, 1957). Never exactly mainstream, Beckett is nonetheless considered one of the most important European writers of the 20th century for his influence on modern literature and for his ability to impress, shock and confound.
Administrative Information
Repository:
MSS Manuscripts
Access Restrictions:
Open
Use Restrictions:
Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.
Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.
If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)
Acquisition Source:
Gift and purchase
Acquisition Method:
Accession number 766, purchased from Henry Wenning, 1966: August 3
Accession number 767, purchased from Bertram Rota Ltd, 1966: August 3
Accession number 768, gift of Henry Wenning, 1966: August 4
Accession number 770 (1180), purchsed from Henry Wenning, 1966: August 11
Accession number 846, Henry Wenning, 1967: July
Accession number 854, Henry Wenning, 1967: August 30
Accession number 855, Henry Wenning, 1967: August 31
Accession number 1180, purchased from Mrs. Ethel Diamond, 1970: April 22
Accession number 1261, purchased from Mrs. Ethel Diamond, 1971: March 11
Accession number 1266, gift of Henry Wenning and Mrs. Ethel Diamond, 1971: March 19
Accession number 1268, gift of Samuel Beckett through Henry Wenning, 1971: March 26
Accession number 1281, gift of Henry Wenning, 1971: July 23
Accession number 1286, Henry Wenning, 1971: July 28
Accession number 1289, gift of Henry Wenning, 1971: July 28
Accession number 1612, gift of Ruby Cohn, 1981: March
Accession number 1626, Avigdor Arikha, 1984: September 1984
Accession number MSS2016-009, purchase from Brian Cassidy, 2016: April 18
Accession number MSS2016-016, purchase from Brian Cassidy, 2016: May 10
Accession number MSS2018-011, purchase from Peter Grogan, 2018: May 8
Related Materials:
See also the Samuel Beckett Ephemera (VMF014), the Samuel Beckett Posters (VMF233), and the Lord John Press Collection (MSS155).
Preferred Citation:
Name of the Collection, Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Correspondence],
[
Series 2: Manuscripts],
[
Series 3: Notebooks],
[
Series 4: Visual Materials],
[Series 5: Reading University Photocopies],
[
All]
- Series 5: Reading University Photocopies
- Photocopies of selected holdings from Reading University's Samuel Beckett collection. Cannot be photocopies without the permission of Reading University
- Box 6
- Folder 85: All that fall [radio play], 1956
- Autograph [photocopy], 47 pages. See Fin de partie [play]
- Folder 86: Le bateau ivre [poem] by Arthur Rimbaud, 1930
- Typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. 1 item. Typescript of a translation into English by Beckett
- Folder 87: Bing [story]
- Galley proof [photocopy], 4 pages. 1 item
- Folder 88: Breath [play], 1971
- Autograph [photocopy] and typescript [photocopy], 2 pages. 2 items
- Folder 89: Dream of fair to middling women [unpublished novel], 1932
- Typescript [photocopy], 221 pages. 4 items. Includes three letters from Nicholas Zurbrugg to James Knowlson, 1973-1974
- Folder 90: Eleutheria [unpublished play]
- Typescript [photocopy], 134 pages. 1 item
- Folder 91: Film [screenplay], 1963
- Autograph [photocopy], 45 pages. Includes some lines of Text for nothing [collection of short prose]
- Folder 92: Film [screenplay], 1964
- Typescript [photocopy], 42 pages. 1 item
- Folder 93: Fin de partie [play], 1956
Autograph [photocopy], 47 pages.
Includes fragments, drafts or notes of Fin de partie [play], All that fall [radio play], Krapp's last tape [play], and Pim and Willie-Winnie (Happy days) [play]
- Folder 94: Fragment de theatre [play], 1974
- Autograph [photocopy], 12 pages. 1 item. See The gloaming [play]
- Box 7
- Folder 95: The gloaming [play], 1956
- Autograph [photocopy] and typescript [photocopy], 43 pages. 4 items
- Folder 96: Good heavens [play]
- Autograph [photocopy], 5 pages. 1 item. See unpublished and unfinished works
- Folder 97: Happy days [play], 1956
- Autograph [photocopy], 47 pages. 1 item. See Fin de partie [play]
- Folder 98: Jean du Chas [prose piece], 1930
- Typescript [photocopy], 5 pages. 1 item
- Folder 99: Krapp's last tape [play], 1956
- Autograph [photocopy], 47 pages. 1 item. See Fin de partie [play]
- Folder 100: Not I [play], 1972
- Autograph [photocopy] and typescript [photocopy], 59 pages. 11 items
- Folder 101: Not I [play], 1973
- Autograph [photocopy] and typescript [photocopy], 20 pages. 3 items
- Folder 102: Pim [play], 1956
- Autograph [photocopy], 47 pages. 1 item. See Fin de partie [play]
- Folder 103: Premier amour [short story], 1972
- Autograph [photocopy] and typescript [photocopy], 37 pages. 2 items
- Folder 104: Souffle [play], 1971
- Typescript [photocopy], 1 page. 1 item. See Breath [play]
- Folder 105: Text for nothing [collection of short prose], 1963
- Autograph [photocopy], 45 pages. 1 item. See Film [screenplay]
- Folder 106: Sounds [prose piece], 1973
- Autograph [photocopy], 2 pages. 1 item. See unpublished and unfinished works
- Folder 107: Still 3, 1973
- Autograph [photocopy], 3 pages. 1 item. See unpublished and unfinished works
- Folder 108-109: Unpublished and unfinished works
- Typescript [photocopy], 115 pages. 18 items
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Correspondence],
[
Series 2: Manuscripts],
[
Series 3: Notebooks],
[
Series 4: Visual Materials],
[Series 5: Reading University Photocopies],
[
All]
