Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett PDF
Preview Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett
HaAFAeEL PUB LIC wLIBiRARY e 3 1111 01 5968 —— US. $35.00 Can. $47.00 \)§ earing the end of his life, Samuel Beckett i chose James Knowlson to be his biographer because he “knows my work best.” One of the world’s leading authorities on Beckett, Knowlson has drawn on his twenty-year friendship with the Nobel Prize winner, more than one hundred inter- views, and research in dozens of archival collec- tions—many previously untapped by scholars—to produce this definitive biography of one of the cen- tury’s leading writers in both English and French. Damned to Fame follows the reclusive literary giant’s life from his birth in Foxrock, a rural suburb of Dublin, in 1906 to his death in Paris in 1989. Knowlson brilliantly re-creates Beckett’s early years as a struggling author in Paris, his travels through Germany in 1936-37 as the Nazis were consolidating their power, his service in the French Resistance during World War II, and the years of literary fame and financial success that followed the first performance of his controversial Waiting for Godot (1953). Paris between the wars was a city vibrant with experimentation, both in the arts and in personal lifestyle, and Knowlson introduces us to the writers and painters who, along with the young Beckett, populated this bohemian community. Most notable was James Joyce, a fellow Irishman who became Beckett’s friend and mentor and influenced him to devote his life to writing. We also meet the women in Beckett’s life—his domineering mother, May; his cousin Peggy Sinclair, who died at a tragically young age; Ethna MacCarthy, his first love, whom he immortalized in his poetry and prose; Peggy Guggenheim, the American heiress and patron of the arts; and the strong and independent Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, whom he met in the late 1930s and married in 1961. Beyond recounting many previously unknown aspects of the writer’s life, including his strong support for human rights and other political causes, (continued on back flap) U M 8736 oT RH UIGARARY GAN SAPARE CALSFORNIA BA PAFREL. i)J ANe e0 2 1O9R97B TE UES Bee JAN 2.5 1997 abo o 2 2096 MAR 1 1 1997 PR 16 1997 MAY 08 1997| 0 Nf} ~ JAN 19 1999 JAN 47 2000 __FEB OB 2085 MAR 4.9 2009 AUG 3 1 2005 Tr OTHER BOOKS BY JAMES KNOWLSON CRITICISM Universal Language Schemes in England and France 1600-1800 Samuel Beckett: An Exhibition Light and Darkness in the Theatre of Samuel Beckett Frescoes of the Skull: The Later Prose and Drama of Samuel Beckett (with John Pilling) Samuel Beckett: Krapp’s Last Tape. Theatre Workbook I (ed.) EDITIONS Happy Days/ Oh les beaux jours by Samuel Beckett Drunken Boat: A Translation by Samuel Beckett of Arthur Rimbaud’s Le Bateau ivre (with Felix Leakey) Happy Days: Samuel Beckett’s Production Notebook The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett VOL. 1: Waiting for Godot (with Dougald MacMillan) "VOL. I: Endgame ed. S. E. Gontarski VOL. 1: Krapps Last Tape voL. Iv: The Shorter Plays ed. S. E. Gontarski Damned to Kame The Life of Samuel Beckett JAMES KNOWLSON San Rafael Public Library 1100 E Sireet San Rafael, CA 94901 [_] SIMON & SCHUSTER L] = SIMON & SCHUSTER =e Rockefeller Center = 1230 Avenue of the ‘Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 1996 by James Knowlson All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Published by arrangement with Bloomsbury Publishing Limited SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc. Designed by Edith Fowler Manutactured in the United States of America ND POS Mi oe GES OT Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Knowlson, James. Damned to fame : the life of Samuel Beckett / James Knowlson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Beckett, Samuel, 1906- —Biography. 2. Authors, Irish — 20th century—Biography. 3. Authors, French — 20th century— Biography. I. Title. PR6003.E2822764 1996 848’, 91409—dc20 [B] 96-23702 CIP ISBN 0-684-80872-2 Beckett writings in English are quoted by permission of the Beckett Estate, Faber and Faber Ltd. and the Calder Educational Trust, London, and Grove/Atlantic Inc. in the United States of America and Canada, who hold the copyright to his published work. His writings in French are quoted by permission of the Beckett Estate and Les Editions de Minuit. The poem of James Joyce printed in note 66 of chapter 7 is published by courtesy of the Estate of James Joyce. Frontispiece photograph by Barbara Jackson, 1966.
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