Kate Arnold-Forster writes: The collection acquired with the generous support of the Friends of the National Libraries makes an outstanding addition to the University's Samuel Beckett archive, in the form of the research material amassed by Professor James Knowlson over more than 30 years as Samuel Beckett's authorised biographer and friend.
The Beckett Collection at the University of Reading is the largest archive in the world devoted to the life and work of the renowned 20th century writer and dramatist Samuel Beckett (1906-1989).
It comprises a unique collection of original manuscripts, drafts, notebooks, letters and diaries that provide an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers. The Collection grew out of an exhibition held in Reading to celebrate the life and work of Samuel Beckett, two years after he was awarded the 196g Nobel Prize for Literature.
Beckett himself offered a number of items for the exhibition, and he continued to donate items to the archive at Reading throughout his life, developing a close and enduring link with the University. The Collection expanded rapidly over the years as material was added by Beckett's many friends and admirers from the worlds of literature and the theatre and by the international community of Beckett scholars. As well as the original materials and manuscripts, the Collection includes a large record of scholarly and critical commentary relating to his works.
For many years, Beckett had refused repeated requests to co-operate with biographers. When he agreed to work with Knowlson on an authorised biography, he gave him unprecedented access to a wealth of information about his life and work. The resulting biography. Damned to Fame: the Life of Samuel Beckett was published to great critical acclaim in 1996, winning the George Freedly Memorial Award for the outstanding book on theatre in the USA in 1996 and being short-listed for the Whitbread Biography Prize and the James Tait Black Prize in Britain. It remains the definitive biographical work on Beckett.
James Knowlson who was the founder of the Beckett international Foundation at Reading is also the author of ten other books on Beckett and the collection includes not only the entire research archive that relates to the biography, but also Knowlson's extensive scholarly library, built up over a period of thirty years' work on Beckett.
The archive includes:
- Knowlson's personal correspondence with Beckett, comprising 180 letters and cards spanning a period of 19 years. This is an important and unusual collection of letters. not only because it charts the development and progress of a friendship but also because in his letters to Knowlson, Beckett so often wrote about his work and his various writing, directing and translating activities;
- Knowlson's extensive correspondence with relatives and friends of Beckett and with hundreds of other scholars.
- Many unique items and numerous books and manuscripts annotated or signed by Beckett. For example, it includes the original of Beckett's personal address book, containing the addresses of all his friends and acquaintances in the 1960s, and his handwritten replies to detailed questions put to him by Knowlson as he researched the biography. This is material that provides a unique insight into Beckett's life and development as a writer.
- A large scholarly library of critical books, including works by friends of Beckett (many signed) and letters from Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, J. M. Coetzee and Harold Pinter among others.
- Also part of the acquisition is Knowlson's further collection of Beckett memorabilia, which includes audio and video tapes, CDs and DVDs, theatre reviews and programmes, press cuttings and articles, as well as some unique paintings and photographs.
Many of the items have never before been consulted by academics other than Professor Knowlson, and the addition of the archive to the existing Beckett Collection has already begun to create considerable interest and excitement within the community of national and international scholars, who will be able to draw on this material for the first time.
Following the acquisition of the archive the University has appointed a postdoctoral research fellow to pursue research funding opportunities. He will be working closely with the Beckett International Foundation, and with academic staff in the Departments of English and American Literature, French, Film, Theatre & Television and Philosophy.
