Beckett Samuel - A Beckett Canon

A Beckett Canon

THEATER: THEORY/TEXT/PERFORMANCE

Enoch Brater, Series Editor

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Ruby Cohn

Ann Arbor
T HE U NIVERSITY OF M ICHIGAN P RESS

First paperback edition 2005

Copyright by the University of Michigan 2001

All rights reserved

Published in the United States of America by

The University of Michigan Press

Manufactured in the United States of America

Printed on acid-free paper

2008 2007 2006 2005 5 4 3 2

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cohn, Ruby.

A Beckett canon / Ruby Cohn.

p. cm. (Theatertheory/text/performance)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-472-11190-6

1. Beckett, Samuel, 1906Criticism and interpretation. 2. Beckett, Samuel, 1906Bibliography. 3. Beckett, Samuel, 1906 Authorship. 4. Beckett, Samuel, 1906Chronology. I. Title. II. Series.

PR6003.E282 Z6184 2001

848'.91409dc21

00-12319

ISBN 0-472-03131-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN13 978-0-472-11190-9 (cloth)

ISBN13 978-0-472-03131-3 (paper)

ISBN13 978-0-472-02593-0 (electronic)

For appreciators of the writings of Samuel Beckett
(19061989)

The unsung heroes of literary scholarship are the curators of research libraries, and I am most grateful to Susan E. Rainville at the Burns Library of Boston College; Geoff Smith of the Ohio State University Library; Mike Botts, Frances Miller, and especially Julian Garforth at the Beckett Archive of the University of Reading; Linda Ashton, Sally Leach, and Pat Fox at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas; and Felicity OMahoney and Stuart O. Seanoir at Trinity College, Dublin. This summary listing is inadequate to express my gratitude to them.

In the matter of chronology, I am grateful to the following: the manuscript study of Richard Admussen; the bibliography of Raymond Federman and John Fletcher; Edith Fournier in Revue desthtique; J. C. C. C. Mays in Beckett avant Beckett; Eoin OBrien in The Beckett Country; and consultation with Martha Fehsenfeld, Lois Overbeck, and especially James Knowlson and John Pilling.

For the nitty-gritty of publication details, I am most grateful to Breon Mitchell, who interrupted his own work to correct mine, but residual errors are mine alone.

For un-Beckettian ebullience and publishing reassurance I thank Enoch Brater. For photocopying far-flung pieces and for stimulating discussion, I thank Daniela Caselli and Diane Sol, respectively. For shared enthusiasms from different perspectives I thank Peter Gidal. For matters Irish and Trinitarian I thank Anna McMullan and Gerry Dukes. For matters French and literary I thank Michle Praeger. For recondite publications and information I thank Rick Praeger. For entrance to, and rescue from, the mysteries of cyberspace I thank Brit Pyland. For the few quotations from unpublished Beckett materials I thank Jrme Lindon of Les Editions de Minuit. For helpful suggestions I thank the anonymous reader of the University of Michigan Press. Specific scholarly debts are acknowledged in my notes.

Abbreviations are listed for works, catalogs, archives, and two Beckett periodicals.