Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher: The Samuel Beckett File: Correspondence, Interviews, Photos

by Barney Rosset

Preface by Paul Auster • Foreword by Edward Beckett

Edited by Lois Oppenheim • Curated by Astrid Myers Rosset



“You know, Barney, I think my writing days are over ” Beckett writes in 1954 âwhen most of his output was still ahead of him.ã And later, “Sick of all this old vomit and despair more and more of ever being able to puke again. In a world where writers switch publishers at the first shake of a martini pitcher, our trans-Atlantic communications seemed to float on a sea of tranquility and trust.” – from Dear Mr. Beckett



Through letters, contracts, photos, interviews, speeches, reviews and memorabilia – most of which has never before been made public – a rare personal and professional friendship unfolds between these two oddly shy daredevils; through their embrace, they shifted and turned the tide of literature in America.



Among the many never before published

• Beckett's discussion about acting with his long time director, Alan Schneider, as they huddled with Barney Rosset in his East Hampton quonset hut about their upcoming rehearsal with Buster Keaton.

• Susan Sontag correspondence on her Godot production in Sarajevo.

• The comprehensive Endgame file about the controversial production in Cambridge Mass which proceeded against Beckett's wishes.

• Interviews with Eugene Ionesco and Alain Robbe-Grillet about Beckett and Rosset and the Absurdists.

• Estelle Parsons correspondence with Beckett about the actress's proposal to perform Godot with Shelley Winters on Broadway.

• Comprehensive file on the genesis and development of Beckett's Rockaby with Billie Whitelaw.

• Comprehensive file on Rosset's termination from Grove, the press he founded and championed.

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

Barney Rosset was born in 1922 in Chicago to a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. He was briefly married to the Abstract Expressionist American painter Joan Mitchell. He bought Grove Press in 1951, and sold it to the Getty family in 1985. He died in 2012.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a publisher (TamTam Books) I'm fascinated with books about publishing or about the publisher themselves. I'm especially interested in the great American publisher Barney Rosset. His Grove Press is/was very much a presence in my library for nearly my entire teenage and adult life. If it wasn't for example and inspiration I got from Mr. Rosset (from a great distance, never met him) I doubt I would have started TamTam Books. Reading "Mr. Beckett" brought up my anxieties about my press, and I can totally 'feel' for whatever situations that Rosset took on or got himself involved in.

For one, anyone who has even the slightest interest in the world of publishing should read this book. By no means is it a perfect book. In fact, it's kind of messy, but at the end of the read, a delightful mess of a book. Some of the interviews repeat themselves and could have been edited down, but I think the purpose of the publication brings the reader to that era of Samuel Beckett and his relationship with his American publisher, Barney Rosset.

As the full title states, it is a file of Rosset's letters to Beckett, as well as some correspondence from Beckett to Rosset, but also interviews with Rosset, and Eugene Ionesco and Alain Robbe-Grillet, regarding their relationship with the publisher, but on Beckett as well. There is an insight into various theatrical productions of "Waiting for Godot," as well as his other plays. Also interesting interview regarding the making of Beckett's "Film," with Rosset (he produced the movie) and working with Buster Keaton. The letters from Rosset to Beckett are fascinating, concerning the relationship between author and publisher. Nothing dramatic or bad happens between the two guys, but the daily struggle of getting things done, and dealing with financial issues is at times painful (for me) and awesome at the same moment. A magnificent monument to the publisher and the writer. May it last forever.

[Mike Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the interviews are occasionally redundant, but the original correspondence and many recollections of Beckett in his time are essential reading for anyone with serious interest in the author and his work. Additionally, the many travails and adventures of Barney Rosset, his maverick American publisher, are illuminating.