Damned to Fame: the Life of Samuel Beckett_______________ 'A triumph of scholarship and sympathy... one of the great post-war biographies' - Independent 'A landmark in scholarly criticism... Knowlson is the world's largest Beckett scholar. His life is right up there with George Painter's Proust and Richard Ellmann's Joyce in sensitivity and fascination' - Daily Telegraph 'It is hard to imagine a fuller portrait of the man who gave our age some of the myths by which it lives' - Evening Standard _______________ SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE _______________ Samuel Beckett's long-standing friend, James Knowlson, recreates Beckett's youth in Ireland, his studies at Trinity College, Dublin in the early 1920s and from there to the Continent, where he plunged into the multicultural literary society of late-1920s Paris. The biography throws new light on Beckett's stormy relationship with his mother, the psychotherapy he received after the death of his father and his crucial relationship with James Joyce. There is also material on Beckett's six-month visit to Germany as the Nazi's tightened their grip. The book includes unpublished material on Beckett's personal life after he chose to live in France, including his own account of his work for a Resistance cell during the war, his escape from the Gestapo and his retreat into hiding. Obsessively private, Beckett was wholly committed to the work which eventually brought his public fame, beginning with the controversial success of "Waiting for Godot" in 1953, and culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. |
Contents
Schooldays 191523 3 TheGrowth ofaMind 19236 | |
Academic Success and Love 19278 | |
The Paris Years 192830 | |
Return and Flight 19301 | |
Dream of Fair to Middling Women 19323 | |
Impasse and Depression 19568 | |
Censorship and How It Is 195860 | |
Accident Illness and Catastrophe 19679 | |
Vision Restored 19704 | |
Shades 19757 | |
Politics and Company 19779 | |
Winter Journey 19839 | |
Acknowledgements | |
The Unknown Diaries 19367 | |
A Permanent Home 19379 | |
Exodus Occupation and Resistance 19402 | |
Refugein Roussillon 19425 | |
ImageSection Bibliography | |
Notes List of illustrations Also by James Knowlson | |
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Common terms and phrases
actors Alan Schneider Arikha atthe Avigdor Arikha Barney Rosset Beckett wrote Berlin Billie Whitelaw Blin Collected Shorter Plays Cooldrinagh Deirdre Bair Dream of Fair Dublin Duthuit Ellmann Endgame English Faber Fair to Middling father Foxrock French friends Gallery Georges German hehad hewas Interview with SB inthe Ireland Irish itwas Jack MacGowran James Joyce Jean John Calder Josette Hayden Joyce’s July June Krapp’s Last Tape later letter London MacGowran MacGreevy Malone Dies Middling Women Minuit Molloy mother Murphy notebook novel ofhis ofthe onthe painting Paris Peggy Péron poems Pricks than Kicks production published rehearsals Richard Ellmann Rosset Roussillon RudmoseBrown Samuel Beckett SB Dartmouth SB to HH SB to TM Schneider Sept Sinclair stay Texas thathe theatre tothe translation Trinity College undated interview Ussy Velde Waiting for Godot walk writing