Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher: The Samuel Beckett File: Correspondence, Interviews, Photos

Barney Rosset

ISBN 10: 1623160707 / ISBN 13: 9781623160708

Published by Opus Books October 2016, 2016

About this Item

Stain to bottom edge, else tight and clean.

Seller Inventory # 280607

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher: The Samuel Beckett File: Correspondence, Interviews, Photos
• Publisher: Opus Books October 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1623160707
• ISBN 13: 9781623160708
• Binding: Soft Cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • 61-BIOGRAPHY

About this title

Synopsis

Preface by Paul Auster • Foreword by Edward Beckett

Edited by Lois Oppenheim • Curated by Astrid Myers Rosset

“You know, Barney, I think my writing days are over ” Beckett writes in 1954 âwhen most of his output was still ahead of him.ã And later, “Sick of all this old vomit and despair more and more of ever being able to puke again. In a world where writers switch publishers at the first shake of a martini pitcher, our trans-Atlantic communications seemed to float on a sea of tranquility and trust.” – from Dear Mr. Beckett

Through letters, contracts, photos, interviews, speeches, reviews and memorabilia – most of which has never before been made public – a rare personal and professional friendship unfolds between these two oddly shy daredevils; through their embrace, they shifted and turned the tide of literature in America.

Among the many never before published entries:

• Beckett's discussion about acting with his long time director, Alan Schneider, as they huddled with Barney Rosset in his East Hampton quonset hut about their upcoming rehearsal with Buster Keaton.

• Susan Sontag correspondence on her Godot production in Sarajevo.

• The comprehensive Endgame file about the controversial production in Cambridge Mass which proceeded against Beckett's wishes.

• Interviews with Eugene Ionesco and Alain Robbe-Grillet about Beckett and Rosset and the Absurdists.

• Estelle Parsons correspondence with Beckett about the actress's proposal to perform Godot with Shelley Winters on Broadway.

• Comprehensive file on the genesis and development of Beckett's Rockaby with Billie Whitelaw.

• Comprehensive file on Rosset's termination from Grove, the press he founded and championed.

About the Author

Barney Rosset defended personal freedom of the written word at great personal risk (he was arrested numerous times) and redefined American's Puritanical literary parameters. Together with Beckett, his name is forever linked with his authors who include William S. Burroughs, Malcolm X, Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, and D.H. Lawrence.

Lois Oppenheim (Editor) is past president of the international Beckett Society.