The Letters of Samuel Beckett

FAIN: RQ-50566-11

Emory University (Atlanta, GA 30322-1018)
Lois More Overbeck (Project Director: November 2010 to May 2017)

Completion of editing of Volume III and IV of a four volume critical edition and preparation of a one volume edition for a general audience. (36 months)

This selected edition is the first comprehensive collection and contextual presentation of the letters of Irish-born writer and world-playwright Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) whose work is held in the highest esteem by a large, diverse, and international audience. Pivotal for scholarship in the humanities, The Letters of Samuel Beckett published by Cambridge University Press will enrich all readers with fresh perspective on twentieth-century culture. This NEH proposal seeks support to complete the editing of Volume III and IV, and to prepare a one volume edition.

Media Coverage

Waiting for Guinness: playwright Beckett’s regret over career choice (Review)
Author(s): Dalya Alberge
Publication: The Sunday Times (London)
Date: 9/14/2016
Abstract: Review of Volume IV.
URL: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/waiting-for-guinness-playwright-becketts-regret-over-career-choice-f8k2h3s7z

Highlight of Stay So Far (Review)
Author(s): Stefan Collini
Publication: London Review of Books
Date: 12/1/2016
Abstract: Book review magazine
URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n23/stefan-collini/highlight-of-stay-so-far

The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1966-1989 – digested read (Review)
Author(s): John Crace
Publication: The Guardian
Date: 9/25/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-1966-1989-digested-read

The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1966-1989 review: 30 years of extraordinary work (Review)
Author(s): Nicholas Grene
Publication: The Irish Times
Date: 10/8/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-1966-1989-review-30-years-of-extraordinary-work-1.2807623

When Larry Met Sammy (Review)
Author(s): Brian Morton
Publication: Scottish Review of Books
Date: 11/18/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: https://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/2016/11/when-larry-met-sammy/

An emotional farewell from Ireland's master of existential doom (Review)
Author(s): J.P. O'Malley
Publication: The Sunday Independent (Dublin)
Date: 10/10/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/an-emotional-farewell-from-irelands-master-of-existential-doom-35112807.html

Video interview with editor Dan Gunn (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cambridge University Press
Publication: Fifteeneightyfour (Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press
Date: 10/5/2016
Abstract: Interview
URL: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/10/video-interview-with-editor-dan-gunn/

Sam-I-am's final act (Review)
Author(s): David Womersley
Publication: Standpoint Magazine
Date: 11/1/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.standpointonline.co.uk/books-november-2016-david-womersley-samuel-beckett-letters

Letters Brought to Life: The correspondence of Samuel Beckett has been a lesson for Emory graduate students (Media Coverage)
Author(s): The Editor
Publication: Emory Magazine
Date: 9/22/2016
Abstract: Brief piece on the letters project.
URL: http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/issues/2016/autumn%20/of_note/BECKETT.html

The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1966-1989, A BOOK TRAILER (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cambridge Academic Books
Publication: YouTube
Date: 9/14/2016
Abstract: YouTube clip
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y38gQ-thlvU

Letters editor Martha Dow Fehsenfeld remembers Samuel Beckett (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Martha Fehsenfeld
Publication: Cambridge Blog
Date: 10/6/2016
Abstract: About Samuel Beckett, by someone who knew him.
URL: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/10/letters-editor-martha-fehsenfeld-remembers-samuel-beckett/

An Interview with Dan Gunn on The Letters of Samuel Beckett (Part I) (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cambridge University Press
Publication: Fifteeneightyfour (Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press
Date: 9/29/2016
Abstract: Interview with Beckett Letters editor
URL: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/09/an-interview-with-dan-gunn-on-the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-part-1/

An interview with Dan Gunn on The Letters of Samuel Beckett (Part 2) (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cambridge University Press
Publication: Fifteeneightyfour (Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press
Date: 9/30/2016
Abstract: Interview
URL: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/09/an-interview-with-dan-gunn-on-the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-part-2/

Beckett Plays Beckett (Review)
Author(s): Fintan O'Toole
Publication: New York Review of Books
Date: 11/24/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/11/24/beckett-plays-beckett-letters/

The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1966-1989 review – a ‘long farewelling’ (Review)
Author(s): Chris Power
Publication: The Guardian
Date: 10/19/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/19/the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-1966-1989-review

Samuel Beckett’s letters reveal a fiercely private workoholic (Review)
Author(s): Ian Sansom
Publication: The Spectator
Date: 10/1/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/samuel-becketts-letters-reveal-a-fiercely-private-workoholic/

The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume IV: 1966-1989 edited by George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dann Gunn and Lois More Overbeck - review (Review)
Author(s): David Sexton
Publication: The Evening Standard
Date: 9/15/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/books/the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-volume-iv-19661989-edited-by-george-craig-martha-dow-fehsenfeld-dann-a3346171.html

The Letters of Samuel Beckett Volume IV review - 'I work on' (Review)
Author(s): Christopher Taylor
Publication: Financial Times
Date: 10/1/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: https://www.ft.com/content/46321286-863f-11e6-a29c-6e7d9515ad15

Books: The Letters of Samuel Beckett Vol 4: 1966-1989 (Review)
Author(s): John Walsh
Publication: The Times
Date: 9/25/2016
Abstract: Book review
URL: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/books-the-letters-of-samuel-beckett-vol-4-1966-1989-ed-georgecraig-

Associated Products

Samuel Beckett: Weitermachen ist mehr, als ich tun kann - Briefe 1929–1940 (Book)
Title: Samuel Beckett: Weitermachen ist mehr, als ich tun kann - Briefe 1929–1940
Author: Samuel Beckett
Editor: Dan Gunn
Editor: Lois More Overbeck
Editor: George Craig
Editor: Martha Dow Fehsenfeld
Abstract: Volume 1 of the Lettres of Samuel Beckett, translated into German.
Year: 2013
Secondary URL: http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/weitermachen_ist_mehr_als_ich_tun_kann-samuel_beckett_42298.html
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Suhrkamp Verlag GmbH and Co. KG
Type: Translation
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 97835184229
Translator: Chris Shepherd
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume III, 1957-1965 (Book)
Title: The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume III, 1957-1965
Author: Samuel Beckett
Editor: Lois More Overbeck, General Editor
Editor: Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Founding Editor
Editor: George Craig, Editior
Editor: Dan Gunn, Editor
Abstract: 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 authorized 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
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/letters-of-samuel-beckett/oclc/231581070&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/european-literature/letters-samuel-beckett-volume-3?format=HB
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Edited Volume
Type: Translation
ISBN: 9780521867955
Translator: George Craig
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume IV: 1966-1989 (Book)
Title: The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume IV: 1966-1989
Author: Samuel Beckett
Editor: Lois More Overbeck, General Editor
Editor: George Craig, Editor
Editor: Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Founding Editor
Editor: Dan Gunn, Editor
Abstract: This fourth and final volume, which completes the Cambridge edition of The Letters of Samuel Beckett, covers the final twenty-four years of what was, as Beckett saw it, a surprisingly long life. During these years he produced many of his finest and most concentrated works for theatre, plays that included Not I, Ohio Impromptu, and Catastrophe; for television he wrote Eh Joe and Ghost Trio; while in prose, he produced the late 'trilogy' that comprises Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, and Worstward Ho. In 1969, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the letters from this period show him struggling to cope with the pressures created by his ever-growing international fame. The letters reveal how, later, he turned his mind to his legacy, as seen through his interactions with biographers and archivists. This volume also provides chronologies, explanatory notes, translations, and profiles of Beckett's chief correspondents.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/letters-of-samuel-beckett-1966-1989-volume-4/oclc/949910689&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/european-literature/letters-samuel-beckett-volume-4?format=HB
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780521867962
Translator: George Craig, French Translator
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Books of the Year
Date: 11/23/2016
Organization: The Times Literary Supplement
Abstract: The TLS's best books of the year

Best Books of the Year
Date: 11/17/2016
Organization: Evening Standard
Abstract: Best books of the year

Best Books of the Year
Date: 11/26/2016
Organization: The Guardian
Abstract: Best books of 2016, by Andrew Motion

Our Favorite Books of 2016
Date: 12/3/2016
Organization: The Irish Times
Abstract: Martin Doyle's favorite books of 2016.

The Letters of Samuel Beckett (Web Resource)
Title: The Letters of Samuel Beckett
Author: Lois More Overbeck
Abstract: Project website
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.gs.emory.edu/sites/beckettletters/
Primary URL Description: Project website

The Letters of Samuel Beckett Facebook Page (Web Resource)
Title: The Letters of Samuel Beckett Facebook Page
Author: Lois More Overbeck
Abstract: Project Facebook page
Year: 2015
Primary URL: https://www.facebook.com/samuelbeckettletters
Primary URL Description: Project Facebook page

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