Description
The third volume of The Letters of Samuel Beckett reveals the author striving to find a balance between the demands put upon him by his growing international fame, and his need for the peace and silence form which new writing might emerge. During this period Beckett has to face the fact that his work – despite his own advocacy of failure – is not only critically acclaimed but also popular with the public. At first hesitantly, then later enthusiastically, he moves further into the world of the theater, discovering how to direct his own plays. He finds himself called upon by a greatly expanded range of correspondents, from more and more countries:academics, authors, stage-directors, set-designers, publishers, and translators; while at the same time loyalty requires him to keep writing to his old and trusted friends. He launches into work for radio with All That Fall and Embers, both written for the BBC, into television with Eh Joe, and into cinema with Film. He also returns to fiction, writing Comment c’est (How It Is), his first novel in a decade; where hithero he has been reticent about the process of composition, now he devotes letter after letter to describing and explaining his work in progress. And for the first time Beckett has a woman as his chief correspondent:in the intense and abundant letters to Barbra Bray is to found one of the excitements of his volume. Critical introductions to the letters offer contextual information, including on the Franco-Algerian War that so marks the era;explanatory notes are provided, as are profiles of Beckett’s chief correspondents, and translations of writings not in English.
