Beckett Remembering / Remembering Beckett Read online

  Copyright © 2006, 2011 by James and Elizabeth Knowlson

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  ISBN: 978-1-61145-199-3

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  Picture Credits

  Preface

  Part I Beckett Remembering

  Chapter 1 The Young Samuel Beckett

  Biography, 1906-27

  Home

  Family

  Music and Tennis

  School

  University

  Sport and Theatre

  Chapter 2 Reluctant Teacher and Lecturer

  Biography, 1927-33

  Campbell College, Belfast

  The Sinclairs and Kassel

  The Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris

  Beckett on the Joyces

  Trinity College, Dublin

  Beckett on Jack B. Yeats

  Francis Stuart on Beckett

  Chapter 3 The Bad Years

  Biography, 1933-9

  Psychotherapy and Murphy

  J. M. Coetzee

  Biography, 1940-6

  Beckett and the French Resistance

  Escape to the South

  The Irish Red Cross Hospital, Saint-Lô

  Part II Remembering Beckett

  Chapter 4 Post-war Success: The French Novels and En attendant Godot

  Biography, 1945-55

  Richard Seaver on Translating Beckett

  Patrick Bowles on Beckett in the Early 1950s

  Jean Martin on the World Premiere of En attendant Godot

  Peter Woodthorpe on the British Premiere of Waiting for Godot

  Ruby Cohn on the Godot Circle

  Chapter 5 Growing Fame

  Biography, 1955-69

  Lawrence E. Harvey on Beckett, 1961-2

  Aidan Higgins

  Avigdor Arikha on Beckett and Art

  Martin Esslin on Beckett the Man

  Eileen O’Casey

  Shivaun O’Casey

  Chapter 6 Beckett as Director

  Biography

  The Royal Court Theatte, London

  Brenda Bruce

  Jocelyn Herbert

  Billie Whitelaw

  The Schiller-Theater, Berlin

  The San Quentin Drama Workshop

  Rick Cluchey

  Alan Mandell

  Lawrence Held

  Bud Thorpe

  Chapter 7 Memories of Beckett in London and Berlin

  Biography

  London

  Berlin

  Chapter 8 Beckett in the USA: Tributes and Memories

  Biography

  Edward Albee

  Paul Auster

  Jessica Tandy

  Hume Cronyn

  Frederick Neumann

  Chapter 9 The Last Twenty Years

  Biography, 1969-89

  James Knowlson

  S. E. Gontarski

  Charles Krance

  Michael Rudman

  Jan Jonson

  Anthony Minghella

  Chapter 10 In Brief

  Chapter 11 And Finally…

  Antoni Libera: Beckett’s Blessing

  Robert Scanlan: Indeflectible Courtesy

  Raymond Federman: Sam’s Gift of Words

  Appendix: Beckett on Racine

  The Unpublished Lecture Notes of Grace West (neé McKinley), 1931

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Our first and most important debt in this volume published for the centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth in 1906 is to Beckett himself for the many personal interviews which he granted to James Knowlson in 1989 and which are collected here for the first time. Beckett imposed no restrictions on the use of any of this material and the interviews are collected and printed by permission of the Samuel Beckett Estate, which owns the copyright to Beckett’s words.

  The book could not have been realized, however, without the ready consent and full, enthusiastic cooperation of the many interviewees or their heirs and without the input of Beckett’s friends, some of whom have written pieces especially for it.

  We thank most warmly all the contributors and their heirs, who are listed below.

  Certain photographers waived their professional rights and kindly provided a photograph as their gift to this volume in memory of Beckett and we thank them for their generosity: Beppe Arvidsson; John Haynes; Sandra Lousada; Lütfi Ozkök; Albert Maysles; Wolfgang Suschitzy; the William MacQuitty Estate. We also wish to acknowledge the kindness of those who have provided photographs, some of which were previously unknown, to add to the more familiar ones of Beckett and his family.

  A few very short extracts are reprinted from interviews with or essays by Peter Brook; Emil Cioran; Eugène Ionesco; B. S. Johnson; Jay Levy; John Montague; Edna O’Brien; Robert Pinget; Tom Stoppard. All references to the books in which these extracts originally appeared are fully listed in the chapter entitled In brief.

  Finally, we should make clear here exactly what is being published in the appendix on ‘Beckett on Racine’. This consists of Mrs. Grace West’s (née McKinley) student notes on two of Samuel Beckett’s lectures to her class. These are, of course, her own words, as can be seen by contrasting her version of the lectures with those by Rachel Burrows (née Dobbin) and Leslie Daiken, which are held in Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Reading archives respectively. As such they do not constitute a new Beckett text and should be approached with some degree of caution. But the notes are clear and coherent and offer a fascinating insight into the early encounter of one writer of genius with a dramatist whom he much admired.

  Institutions

  Campbell College Archive, Belfast; Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, New Hampshire; The Deutsches Theatermuseum, Munich; Getty Images; the Historisches Archiv, Stuttgart; The Heinz Koster Archiv; The Board of Trinity College, Dublin and the Alumni Office there; The Beckett International Foundation, the University of Reading; Journal of Beckett Studies; the Library of Syracuse University; Ullstein Bild; the Nobel Foundation; University College, London Library; the McFarlin Library of the University of Tulsa; The Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

  The following private individuals:

  Edward Albee and the Albee Foundation; Avigdor Arikha; Walter Asmus; Anne Atik; the late Fernand Aude; Paul Auster; Patri
ck Bailly-Cowell; the late Boleslaw Barlog; the late Ann Beckett; Edward Beckett; John Beckett; Georges Belmont (Pelorson); Horst Bollmann; the late Patrick Bowles; Enoch Brater; Peter Brook; the late Brenda Bruce; Professor Mary Bryden; the late Dr Robert Burkitt and Robin Burkitt; the late Rachel Burrows (née Dobbin); the late Dr Gottfried Büttner and Dr Marie-Renate Büttner; Meta Buttnick (née Bloom); James Campbell; Pierre Célice; the late E. M. Cioran; Rick Cluchey; Jonathan Coe; Professor Ruby Cohn; Cathy Courtney; Professor Thomas Cousineau; the late Gervase Cowell (SOE adviser); the late Hume Cronyn; Susan Cooper-Cronyn; the late William Cunningham; Nancy Cunningham; Lori Curtis (University of Tulsa); the late Emile Delavenay; Zoe Dominic Photography; Christel Dormagen; Annika Ekdahl (The Nobel Foundation); Geoffrey Elborn; the late Martin Esslin and Monica Esslin; Margaret Farrington (the Thomas MacGreevy Estate); Raymond Federman; Martha Fehsenfeld; Casey Flynn; Daniel Fogel; Gillian Furlong (University College, London Library); Phyllis Gaffney; Sir Herbert Gamble; Julian Garforth; Grainne Gaynor; S. E. Gontarski; the late Evelyn Nora Good body (née Strong); Ursula Greenwood; Edward Gretton (the Jane Lidderdale Estate); the late James Guilford and Ronald Guilford; Keith Haines (Campbell College); Stella Halkyard (the John Rylands Library); the late Dr Cyril Harris; the late Lawrence E. Harvey; Sheila Harvey-Tanzer; the late Josette Hayden; Ronald Hayman; Lawrence Held; the late Martin Held; the late Jocelyn Herbert; Klaus Herm; Aidan Higgins; Jakob Holder (the Albee Foundation); Alannah Hopkin; Susan Howe; the late Eugène Ionesco; Hugo Jehle; the late B. S. Johnson; General Sir Charles Jones; Sheila Jones (née Dobbs); Jan Jonson; Valerie Joynt (née Lawrence); Gottfried Junker; the late John Kobler; Rosemarie Koch; Charles Krance; Barbara Krieger (Dartmouth College); Rolf Kruger; Professor Jay Levy; Antoni Libera; the late Yvonne Lob; Christopher Logue; Sandra and Julian Lou-sada; the late Reverend Dr Brian McConnell; the late Adelaide Mary McCormick (née Arabin Jones) and Simon and Timothy McCormick; Simone McKee; Rebecca and Miranda MacQuitty; Anna McMullan; Alan Mandell; Jean Martin; Jane Maxwell (Trinity College, Dublin); Bernard Meehan (Trinity College, Dublin); Anthony Minghella; John Montague; Louise Morgan (the National Gallery of Ireland); Neill Morton (Headmaster, Portora Royal School); Caroline Beckett Murphy; Frederick Neumann; Mark Nixon; Edna O’Brien; the late Eileen O’Casey and Shivaun O’Casey; Vibeke Kennair Ottesen; Lois Overbeck; the late Sheila Page (née Roe); Alexis Péron; the late Geoffrey Perrin and Jean Perrin; Richard Pine; Emeritus Professor John Pilling; the late Robert Pinget, Ronald Porter, Executor of the late Peter Wood Thorpe; Eric Price (Grove Atlantic); the photographer I. C. Rapoport; Gennet Rich; Mary Rogers; the late Lucien Roubaud; Michael Rudman; Nicholas Ryan (the Thomas MacGreevy Estate); Claude Sarraute and the late Nathalie Sarraute; Jay Satterfield (Dartmouth College); Elliseva Sayers; Robert Scanlan; Michael Schmidt (Editor of PN Review) for his advice; the late Alan Schneider; Susan Schreibman; Eva-Katharina Schultz; Dorothy Scott (née Pearse); the late Duncan Scott and Bernadette Scott for permission to use her husband’s invaluable notes; Richard and Jeannette Seaver (who are also our publishers in the United States); Morris Sinclair; Emily Skillen (née Lisney); Jerry Speier; Nina Soufy; Tom Stoppard; the late Francis Stuart and Finola Stuart; Moira Symons (née Neill); the late Ursula Thompson and Mima Thompson (now Deborah Charlton); Bud Thorpe; Claire Tomalin; Ann Trimble (née McConnell); the late Mita and Edmund Tuby; Thomas Victor; Dr John A. Wallace; James Walling; Jane Walling Wefelmeyer; Helen Watanabe; Terence West; Francis Wheale; Billie Whitelaw; the late Eileen Williams; the late Professor John O. Wisdom; Diane Worrell; Emeritus Professor Barbara Wright; Jesse Forbes Yates (née Brown); Diana Zambonelli.

  Finally, because of its mixed content of interviews, personal reminiscences, especially commissioned pieces and over a hundred photographs this book owes a lot to the skill, dedication, patience, enthusiasm and good humour of the editorial staff at Bloomsbury Publishing in Great Britain: Dr Kathy Rooney, who first commissioned it; Bill Swainson, who took over its preparation and production and became its overseeing spirit; Louise Miller who assisted him capably and enthusiastically and dealt with the photographs; Sarah Hall, the copy editor, who helped to simplify and clarify, as well as scrupulously copy-edit the text and Penny Edwards, who designed and oversaw the book’s production. In the United States, we warmly thank our publishers, Richard and Jeannette Seaver, and in Germany, our dedicated editor, Hans-Ulrich Müller-Schwefe, the consistently helpful picture editor, Christine Groh, Matthias Reiner and our excellent translator, Christel Dormagen.

  James and Elizabeth Knowlson

  Picture Credits

  Page

  3 Family photograph, c. 1910. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  5 Beckett’s family home, ‘Cooldrinagh’. (Courtesy of Mary Bryden)

  6 Samuel Beckett as a boy, c. 1910. (Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)

  6 Frank Beckett, Sam’s older brother, c. 1910. (Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)

  7 One of Beckett’s dogs. (Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)

  8 Beckett’s mother, May Beckett, with her brother, c. 1937. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  10 Bill and May Beckett with their niece, Sheila Page (née Roe). (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  11 May Beckett, with (probably) her brother’s wife, c. 1937. (Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)

  12 Beckett’s father, Bill Beckett, c. 1928. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  14 Beckett’s brother, Frank. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  15 Sam and Frank playing cards. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  16 Frank and May Beckett, c. 1948-9. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  18 Mary Manning as a child, 1914. (Courtesy of Susan Howe)

  21 A. M. Buchanan, Beckett’s cricket captain at Portora, 1923. (Courtesy of the Head Master, Portora Royal School)

  22 Portora Royal Cricket XI, 1922. (Courtesy of Mima Thompson)

  24 Thomas Rudmose-Brown. (Courtesy of Eileen Williams)

  25 Beckett’s notes on Dante, 1926. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate and The Board of Trinity College Dublin)

  26 Beckett with his golf partner, Bill Cunningham. (Courtesy of Mrs. Nancy Cunningham)

  32 Beckett as a Student, 1924-5. (Courtesy of his cousin, Morris Sinclair)

  34 Beckett, Campbell College, Belfast, 1928. (Courtesy of Keith Haines and Campbell College)

  37 Peggy Sinclair, 1928. (Courtesy of Morris Sinclair)

  38 Peggy and Morris Sinclair in Kassel, 1929-30. (Courtesy of Morris Sinclair)

  40 Beckett’s friend, Thomas MacGreevy, c. 1928. (Courtesy of Margaret Farrington and Nicholas Ryan)

  42 Emile Delavenay before his wedding, 1928. (Courtesy of Claire Tomalin)

  44 James Joyce in the 1930s. (Courtesy of Getty-Images)

  48 Joyce, Giorgio, Lucia and Nora in the 1920s. (Courtesy of the Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale)

  50 Lucia Joyce in the early 1930s. (Courtesy of The Jane Lidderdale Estate and University College, London)

  51 Paul Leon in the late 1930s. (Courtesy of the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa)

  57 Grace West with a group of Trinity College, Dublin students, 1930-1. (Courtesy of Terence West)

  59 Jack Yeats at his easel, 1950. (Courtesy of the William MacQuitty Estate)

  60 Francis Stuart. (Courtesy of Finola Stuart)

  65 Beckett and Thomas MacGreevy, London, 1934-5. (Courtesy of Margaret Farrington and Nicholas Ryan)

  67 Beckett’s wife, Suzanne, at sixty. (Courtesy of Margaret Farrington and Nicholas Ryan)

  67 Suzanne as a young woman. (Courtesy of Mita and Edmund Tuby)

  71 Ursula and Geoffrey Thompson, c. 1937. (Courtesy of Mima Thompson)

  73 The Thompson’s’ wedding, 1935. (Courtesy of Mima Thompson)

  74 J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winner for literature, 2003. (Courtesy of the Nobel Foundation)

  76 Beckett’s application to the University of Cape Town, July
1937. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  77 Alfred Peron, c. 1939. (Photograph by Samuel Beckett. Courtesy of Alexis Péron)

  78 Jeannine Picabia (‘Gloria’), 1939-40. (Courtesy of her son, Patrick Bailly-Cowell)

  80 Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia in Madrid in 1943. (Courtesy of Patrick Bailly-Cowell)

  81 Nathalie Sarraute. (Courtesy of Historisches Archiv, Stuttgart)

  82 Alfred and Mania Peron, 1939. (Courtesy of Alexis Péron)

  84 Beckett’s rented house in Roussillon. (Photography Gottfried Büttner. Courtesy of Marie-Renate Büttner)

  86 Anna O’Meara (pen-name Noel) de Vic Beamish. (Courtesy of Ursula Greenwood)

  87 Henri Hayden’s pen-and-ink sketch of Roussillon. (Courtesy of The Beckett International Foundation, The University of Reading)

  90 ‘The Capital of Ruins’: the Normandy town of Saint-Lo after the war-time bombing. (Collection Béliers. Courtesy of Phyllis Gaffney)

  92 Beckett with Simone McKee and friends in Ireland after the war, c. 1948. (Courtesy of Simone McKee)

  93 Beckett in Ireland after the war, c. 1948. (Courtesy of Simone McKee)

  97 The painter Henri Hayden and Samuel Beckett, early 1960s. (Courtesy of the late Josette Hayden)

  98 May Beckett, 1948-9. (Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)

  99 Beckett’s ‘modest little house’ in Ussy sur Marne. (Courtesy of the Samuel Beckett Estate)

  100 Richard Seaver in the 1950s. (Courtesy of Richard Seaver)

  108 Patrick Bowles with Jane Lougee and Christopher Logue, c. 1953. (Photograph by Otto van Noppen)

  116 Jean Martin and Roger Blin, January 1953. (Photograph by Bernand, Agence de Presse Photographique Bernand)

  121 Peter Woodthorpe who played Estragon in the first British production of Waiting for Godot (Courtesy of Ron Porter)