The Letters of Samuel Beckett
- Release Date: 05/02/2009
- Country of Issue: United Kingdom
- Category: Academic and professional books
"The prospect of reading Beckett’s letters quickens the blood like none other’s, and one must hope to stay alive until the fourth volume is safely delivered."
- Tom Stoppard
The letters written by Samuel Beckett between 1929 and 1940 provide a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, and mark the gradual emergence of Beckett’s unique voice and sensibility.
Published on 5 February 2009, The Cambridge University Press edition of The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehensive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century.
Selected for their bearing on his work from over 15,000 extant letters, the letters published in this four-volume edition encompass sixty years of Becketts writing life (1929–1989), and include letters to friends, painters and musicians, as well as to students, publishers, translators, and colleagues in the world of literature and theatre.
For anyone interested in twentieth-century literature and theatre this edition is essential reading, offering not only a record of Becketts achievements but a powerful literary experience in itself.
Contents
General introduction | French translator’s preface | George Craig | German translator’s preface | Viola Westbrook | Editorial procedures | Acknowledgments | Permissions | Abbreviations | Introduction to Volume I | Letters | Appendix | Profiles | Bibliography | Index
‘Knowing as we do that Samuel Beckett is the only writer who can sum up the agonies and ecstasies of the twentieth century, if we had any doubts as to his relevance today, they would be dispelled by the amazing treasure trove contained in his letters - at last we are made privy to the full range of his passion for art and beauty, which is neither naïve nor sentimental, to the pyrotechnics of his savage wit, and more lastingly perhaps, to his deep humanity."
- Jean-Michel Rabaté, Vartan Gregorian Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
The Letters of Samuel Beckett
Volume 1: 1929–1940 Samuel Beckett, Edited by Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Lois More Overbeck, Edited in association with Dan Gunn, George Craig Publication date 5 February 2009 | Hardback 9780521867931 |£30.00 | 882 pagesIf you would like more information, contact the Press Office:
- Telephone: +44 (0)1223 325544
- Fax: +44 (0)1223 325062
- Email: press@cambridge.org
- Post: The Press Office, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8BS, United Kingdom