Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist
The Letters of Samuel Beckett

The Letters of Samuel Beckett

Volume 3. 1957–1965

Award Winner

Part of The Letters of Samuel Beckett

George Craig, Dan Gunn
View all contributors
  • Date Published: September 2014
  • availability: Available
  • format: Hardback
  • isbn: 9780521867955

Hardback

Add to wishlist

Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection.

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • This third volume of The Letters of Samuel Beckett focuses on the years when Beckett is striving to find a balance between the demands put upon him by his growing international fame, and his need for the peace and silence from which new writing might emerge. This is the period in which Beckett launches into work for radio, film and, later, into television. It also marks his return to writing fiction, with his first major piece for a decade, Comment c'est (How It Is). Where hitherto he has been reticent about the writing process, now he devotes letter after letter to describing and explaining his work in progress. For the first time Beckett has a woman as his major correspondent: a relationship shown in his intense and abundant letters to Barbara Bray. The volume also provides critical introductions, chronologies, explanatory notes and profiles of Beckett's main correspondents.

    • The first authorised edition of Samuel Beckett's letters, selected from his entire corpus and gathered from archives and private collections worldwide
    • This volume contains his intense and abundant letters to Barbara Bray - the first time Beckett has a woman as his major correspondent
    • Includes full explanatory notes, chronologies, profiles of Beckett's main correspondents and detailed references to the location of the letters
    Read more

    Awards

    • A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2015

    Reviews & endorsements

    'In the third volume of this landmark project, the editors offer an expertly assembled selection of Beckett's letters written between 1957 and 1965.' Publishers Weekly

    'Superb … as with earlier volumes the editorial work on display here is of a very high order.' Standpoint

    'Readers get an extraordinary insight into the mind of arguably this country's best playwright.' Irish Tatler

    'The third volume is as impeccably and as lovingly edited as its predecessors … As always, George Craig's translation of the letters in French is clear, elegant and always inventive - particularly felicitous, for instance, is his rendering of the French slang term mézigue as 'My Nibs'. Beckett would have loved it.' Irish Times

    'The volume like its earlier companions is a work of meticulous scholarship and has to be counted a major achievement by Cambridge University Press.' Emer O'Kelly, Irish Independent

    'Among all the tawdry showbiz memoirs now crowding the shops, here is greatness, words to take to heart, the book of the year.' David Sexton, Evening Standard

    'A beautifully wrought publication and thanks to its four editors it has an artistry all of its own.' Sean Doran, The Independent

    '… magnificent and accessible, this collection will be cherished by scholars, but lovers of theater will appreciate it, too.' Library Journal

    'The first two volumes have been critically acclaimed, and this one is a breathtaking feat, providing new insight into Beckett's personal life and working process.' The Chronicle of Higher Education

    'Wonderfully unbuttoned and, in places, intimate and endearing.' The Guardian

    'The most significant literary correspondence of its time.' The Spectator

    'The best letter anthology this year and by quite a margin … This is not only thanks to Beckett's mesmerising writing and wonderful turn of phrase but also because the book has been meticulously and perfectly edited.' Shaun Usher, The Big Issue

    'Beckett's Letters are a joy to read.' The London Magazine

    'George Craig's essay on translating Beckett and his translation of the letters Beckett wrote in French are a wonder of tact and ingenuity. In addition, Dan Gunn provides a thoughtful overview. … I am sure that what is to come will be as good as what we have here, for it is now clear that Beckett is never going to dry up and, indeed, that he is that rare sort of writer who grows younger as he ages.' The Times Literary Supplement

    'The Letters of Samuel Beckett series is a superb achievement of scholarship and publishing, wonderfully presented and richly annotated.' New York Review of Books

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: September 2014
    • format: Hardback
    • isbn: 9780521867955
    • length: 816 pages
    • dimensions: 223 x 143 x 40 mm
    • weight: 1.27kg
    • contains: 29 b/w illus.
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    List of illustrations
    General introduction
    French translator's preface George Craig
    Editorial procedures
    Acknowledgements
    Permissions
    List of abbreviations
    Introduction to Volume III Dan Gunn
    Letters, 1957–1965
    Appendix: profiles
    Bibliography of works cited
    Index of recipients
    Index of first names
    Summary listing of Samuel Beckett's works, Volume III
    General index.

  • Author

    Samuel Beckett

    Editors

    George Craig, University of Sussex
    George Craig, Editor and French Translator, is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sussex.

    Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Emory University, Atlanta
    Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Founding Editor, was authorized by Samuel Beckett to edit his correspondence in 1985.

    Dan Gunn, The American University of Paris, France
    Dan Gunn, Editor, is Professor of Comparative Literature and English at The American University of Paris.

    Lois More Overbeck, Emory University, Atlanta
    Lois More Overbeck, General Editor, is a Research Associate of the Laney Graduate School, Emory University.

    Contributors

    George Craig, Dan Gunn

    Awards

    • A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2015

Related Books

also by this author

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email [email protected]

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×