Beckett, Samuel, 1906-

Samuel Beckett collection. -- 1952-1980. -- 72 cm of textual records, graphic materials and sound recordings.

Samuel Beckett was an Irish author and playwright, born at Foxrock, near Dublin on 13 April 1906. He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he read English, French, and Italian. He lived mainly in France from 1932 onwards. His most famous play, En attendant Godot was published in 1952. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1969. He died in Paris on 22 December 1989.

There have been two accruals. The first accrual is arranged into 5 series: manuscripts, radio and television scripts, correspondence, research materials, Merlin publishing files. It contains a signed pen sketch by Ronald Searle (1920-) dated Paris, 1956. The second accrual consists of two brief letters from Beckett to Diane Root. The collection has been supplemented by books which have been catalogued for Research Collections and periodicals which have not been catalogued. Library Research News 2, No. 4 (July 1977) contains a detailed description of the monograph and serial sections of the Besterman collection.

Title is based on the content of collection.
The first accrual was purchased from Theodore Besterman in 1969. The second accrual (48-1995) was purchased from Ridge Books of Stone Ridge, New York in August 1995.
Finding aid available in hard copy and electronically for the first accrual.
There are no access restrictions.
No further accruals are expected