Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher

The Samuel Beckett File: Correspondence, Interviews, Photos

Barney Rosset

• Publisher: Opus
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781623160715
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• A Life in Art
• Introduction
• Editorial Note
• Dramatis Personae
• Prologue
• Act One: The Early Letters
• Entr’Acte
• Act Two: The French Connection
• Entr’Acte
• Act Three: From Word to Image
• Entr’Acte
• Act Four: The ‘Plays’ the Thing
• Act Five: AprÈS (Barney’s) Grove
• Epilogue
• Rosset Publications of Beckett
• Permission Credits
• Index
• Copyright