Samuel Beckett's Library

The first study to assess the importance of the marginalia, inscriptions, and other manuscript notes in the 750 volumes of Samuel Beckett's personal library.

Dirk Van Hulle (Author), Mark Nixon (Author)

9781316632819, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 January 2017

328 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'… not just another book about Samuel Beckett (1906-1989): it is a fascinating contribution to the history of ideas and cross-cultural theory. … undoubtedly impressive, rigorous, coherent, and innovative. Bibliophiles will love this book and the lay reader will find in it a wonderful invitation to reading …' Yves Laberge, The European Legacy

Samuel Beckett's Library critically examines the reading notes and marginalia contained in the books of Samuel Beckett's surviving library in Paris. Previously inaccessible to scholars, this is the first study to assess the importance of the marginalia, inscriptions, and other manuscript notes in the 750 volumes of the library. Setting the library into context with other manuscript material such as drafts and notebooks, this book examines the way in which Beckett absorbed, 'translated', and transmitted his reading in his own work. It thus illuminates Beckett's cultural and intellectual world, and shows the ways in which his reading often engendered writing.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Reading traces: Beckett as a reader
2. Literature in English
3. Literature in French
4. Literature in German
5. Literature in Italian
6. Classics and other literatures
7. Philosophy
8. Religion
9. Dictionaries
10. Science
11. Music and art
Concluding marginalia
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix: catalogue of books in Beckett's library.

Subject Areas: Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]