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Samuel Beckett:

A Collection of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



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Descriptive Summary
Repository: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Creator: Beckett, Samuel, 1906-
Title: Samuel Beckett Collection
Dates: 1930-1990
Extent: 10 boxes (4.17 linear feet), 1 galley folder, and 1 oversize box
Abstract: The collection is composed primarily of Beckett works, including drafts of Waiting for Godot (1952) in the original French and the English translation, All That Fall (1956), Watt (1953), and Whoroscope (1930). Also present is correspondence between Beckett and Kay Boyle, Andreas Brown, and others.
RLIN Record #: TXRC00-A1
Languages: Material written in English and French.

Administrative Information

Processed by

Chelsea S. Jones

Restrictions

Access

Open for research

Biographical Sketch

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born April 13, 1906, at his family's home in Foxrock, south of Dublin. He was educated at Miss Ida Elsner's Academy in Stillorgan, the Earlsfort House School in Dublin, and the Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland (1919-23). He began his law studies at Trinity College in order to become an accountant in his family's architectural surveyance firm, but in his third year he started studying modern languages, particularly French. His studies improved so markedly that he won a scholarship to pass the summer in France before his senior year, and he graduated first in his class in modern languages in 1927.

Following his graduation, Beckett taught at Campbell College in Belfast (1927-1928) and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (1928-1930). During his stay in Paris, he established relationships with many important literary figures of his day, including Thomas MacGreevy, Richard Aldington, Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, George Reavey, Samuel Putnam, Nancy Cunard, Sylvia Beach, and, most significantly for Beckett, James Joyce.

Beckett's early writings such as Whoroscope (1930), Proust (1931), More Pricks than Kicks (1934), Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates (1935), and Murphy (1938) won him neither fame nor money. Despite his love for Paris and his periodic stays in Germany, France, and London, Beckett's financial straits repeatedly constrained him to return to live with his disapproving family in Dublin, where he became subject to mental breakdowns and frequent, severe bouts of depression.

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Beckett worked as a reviewer and translator for various magazines and projects, including Nancy Cunard's Negro Anthology (1934). He became increasingly interested in modern drama as he observed productions of the Dramiks, a Dublin troupe, and contemplated writing his own plays. In October 1940, he became a member of the French Resistance, and he and Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil (who he married in 1961) were forced to flee to unoccupied France in August 1942. The French rewarded his courage in 1945 with the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance.

During the late 1940s, Beckett began to write many of his works in French, including Molloy (1951), Malone meurt (1951), and the play that finally won him international fame, En attendant Godot (1952). Other works that helped to establish Beckett's reputation include L'Innomable (1953), Watt (1953), Fin de partie (1957), and Krapp's Last Tape (1960). After 1960, Beckett's works became increasingly brief, but he remained prolific until his death on December 22, 1989. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969.

Sources

For further information on the life and writings of Samuel Beckett, see:

Scope and Contents

Holograph and typescript works make up the bulk of the Samuel Beckett Collection, 1930-1990, supplemented by his correspondence. The collection is organized into three series, arranged alphabetically and chronologically where possible: Series I. Works, 1930-1987 (7 boxes); Series II. Correspondence, 1935-1989 (1.5 boxes); and Series III. Works and Correspondence by other Authors, 1959-1990 (1.5 boxes). This collection was previously accessible through a card catalog, but has been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project.

The Works Series contains a wide range of Beckett's writing, including poems, stories, and plays, spanning most of his writing career. Drafts of both the French En attendant Godot and English Waiting for Godot are present, as are versions of All That Fall, Comment c'est, Krapp's Last Tapes,and Watt. A holograph version of Whoroscope is also present.

The Correspondence Series is divided into Outgoing Correspondence and Incoming Correspondence. Outgoing Correspondence includes letters from Beckett to friends and associates, including Kay Boyle, Andreas Brown, Aidan Higgins, Mary Manning Howe, John Kobler, and others. The few pieces of Incoming Correspondence include letters from Boyle, Brown, John Calder, Ltd., and Kobler. All correspondents are listed in the Index of Correspondents at the end of this guide.

The Works and Correspondence by other Authors Series is divided between works and letters. The works include holograph and typescript drafts of A Poem for Samuel Beckett, by Kay Boyle, a thesis by Magessa O'Reilly, lists of holding by other institutions with Beckett collections, publication announcements, and essays and interviews by various Beckett scholars. The correspondence and all of the literary works in this series are listed in the Index of Correspondence and Index of Works by other Authors found at the end of this finding aid. Elsewhere in the Ransom Center are 10 Vertical Files containing newspaper clippings with biographical information and literary criticism in addition to published works by Beckett.

Related Material

Other materials associated with Samuel Beckett may be found in the following collections at the Ransom Center:

Index Terms

Correspondents

Boyle, Kay
Brown, Andreas
Higgins Aidan, 1927- .
Howe, Mary Manning
John Calder, Ltd.
Kobler, John

Subjects

Authors, Irish--20th century
Playwright, Irish

Document Types

Galley proofs

Container List

Series I. Works, 1930-1987

boxfolder
1 1 Act Without Words (Acte sans paroles), holograph with author edits, 1957, 
2pp
2 All Strange Away, two typescripts and layout notes, 1976, 
30pp
All That Fall
boxfolder
1 3 Bound holograph with author revisions, 1956, 
51pp
4 Bound typescript with author emendations, 1956,  
26pp
5 Anthology of Mexican Poetry, typescript with author emendations and notes, 1950, 
784pp
6 Au loin un oiseau, typescript page proof with author note, 1973, 
8pp
7 Beginning to End, typescript with author revisions, ca. 1970, 
41pp
(paste-ups, advertising materials, and correspondence related to publication of the book, including letters from Beckett and Andreas Brown, 1984-1987, removed to oversize box 1)
8 Breath, holograph, 1969, 
1p
9 Le Calmant, holograph notebook with author revisions and notes, 1946, 
45pp
Comment c'est
boxfolder
1 10-11 Holograph in six notebooks with author revisions and notes, 1958-1960, 
477pp
   
2 1 Typescript with author revisions, nd, 
88pp
2 Typescript with author revisions, nd, 
85pp
3 Typescript with minor author revisions, nd, 
88pp
   
3 1 Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates, printed with author annotations, 1935, 
19pp
Eleutheria
boxfolder
3 2 Holograph with author revisions and notes in two bound notebooks, 1947
3 Typescript with author notes, 1946, 
135pp
4 Embers, three typescripts with author revisions, one script is a French translation, 1959,  
37pp
En Attendant Godot--See Waiting for Godot
boxfolder
3 5 Endgame, holograph notebook with author edits, 1957
6 L'Expulse, holograph notebook with author revisions and notes, 1946,
7 Footfalls, typescript, nd, 
7pp
8 From an abandoned work, holograph with author edits, ca. 1954, 
32pp
9 Happy Days, two typescripts, nd, 
64pp
10 L'Innommable, two holograph bound notebooks with author revisions and notes, 1949-1950, 
302pp
   
4 1 L'Innommable cont.
2 Krapp's Last Tapes, six typescripts and page proofs, includes French translation, page proofs include Embers 1958-1959, 
76pp
3 Malone Dies, typescript with author edits and notes, 1956, 
159pp
see also Malone Meurt in notebooks 5 and 7 of Watt)
4 Mercier et Camier, typescript with author note, ca. 1947, 
151pp
Molloy
boxfolder
4 5-7 Holograph in four notebooks with author emendations, 1947, 
388pp
   
5 1 Molloy cont.
2 Murphy, typescript with author edits and notes, 1936, 
192pp
Not I
boxfolder
5 3 Typescript with author revisions, 1972, 
9pp
4 Typescript, with Krapp's Last Tape, nd, 
23pp
5 Play, typescript, nd, 
17pp
6 Premier Amour, holograph with extensive author edits and note, 1946, 
38pp
7 Textes pour rien, two holograph notebooks with author revisions, 1950-1951, 
82pp
8 That Time, typescript, nd, 
9pp
The Unnamable
boxfolder
5 9 Three holograph notebooks with author emendations and deletions, 1957-1958
10 Typescript with author edits and note, 1958, 
146pp
   
6 1 Voyage de mercier et camier autour du pot dans les bosquets de Bondy, two holograph notebooks with author revisions and note, 1945
Waiting for Godot,
boxfolder
6 2-3 En Attendant Godot, holograph with author emendations, nd, 
150pp
4 Two English holograph notebooks with author emendations, nd, 
163pp
Watt
boxfolder
6 5-7 Seven holograph notebooks with author edits and additions, includes Malone Muert in notebooks 5 and 7, 1940-1948, 
1267pp
   
7 1-4 Seven holograph notebooks (cont.)
5-6 Typescript with author revisions and note, nd, 
231pp
7 Whoroscope, holograph with author revisions and note, 1930, 
5pp


Series II. Correspondence, 1935-1989

Outgoing Correspondence, 1935-1989
boxfolder
8 1 A-Z
2 Beary, John, 1963
Boyle, Kay
boxfolder
8 3 1957-1966
4 1967-1975
5 1976-1982
6 1983-1989
7 Brown, Andreas, 1973-1977
8 Hayman, David, 1955-1982
9 Higgins, Aidan, 1951-1965
Howe, Mary Manning
boxfolder
8 10 1939-1981
11 1982-1989
Kobler, John
boxfolder
9 1 1966-1972
2 1973-1989
3 MacGowran, Jack, 1960-1972
4 Manning, Susan, 1950-1981
5 Ussher, Arland, 1935-1950
6 Incoming Correspondence, 1959-1989


Series III. Works and Correspondence by other Authors, 1959-1990

Works
boxfolder
9 7 A-Z
8 Boyle, Kay, A Poem for Samuel Beckett, holograph and typescript drafts and notes, 1979-1981, 
58pp
   
10 1-2 O'Reilly, Magessa, "Formes et Rythmes Romanesques Dans "Molloy", "Comment c'est " et Compagnie de Samuel Beckett," typescript in French of thesis, 1990, 
351pp
3 Correspondence


Samuel Beckett Collection--Index of Correspondents

Box and folder numbers are followed by a number in parentheses which indicates the number of items by that person. A single item is indicated where there is no number in parentheses following the box and folder number. Where there is correspondence from Samuel Beckett, the number in parentheses is followed by the phrase "from Beckett." So in the example:

Brown, Andreas--8.7 (9 from Beckett), 9.7 (8), 10.3 (8), Oversize Box 1 (3 from Beckett, 4)

there are 9 letters from Beckett to Brown in box 8, folder 7, 8 letters from Brown in box 9, folder 7, 8 letters from Brown in box 10, folder 3, and 3 letters from Beckett to Brown and 4 letters from Brown in Oversize Box 1.

Samuel Beckett Collection--Index of Works by other Authors