Trinity Purchases 'Extensive' Collection Of Beckett Letters

Trinity College Library Dublin has purchased the most extensive collection of Samuel Beckett letters ever to have been offered for public sale.

Totalling 347, the collection makes Trinity the holder of the largest collection of Beckett letters of any research library in the world.

Some of the letters and cards were sent from the Nobel prize-winning author and Trinity alumni to artists Henri and Josette Hayden.

Beckett and his wife, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, first met the Haydens in southern France while evading discovery by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The letters begin in 1947 and cover the period in Beckett’s life during which his mother and his brother Frank died. They also cover a period when the writer was completing Waiting for Godot and working on all three books of his trilogy Molloy, Malone dies and The Unnameable.

"This latest acquisition cements Trinity College Library’s position as the world’s number one repository for the correspondence of Samuel Beckett," a statement from Trinity said.

The University has made the purchase as a result of former staff member William O’Sullivan, Keeper of Manuscripts in Trinity from the 1950s to 1982. Mr O'Sullivan left a bequest to the Library that made the acquisition possible.

Beckett himself presented some of his own literary manuscripts to Trinity’s Library in the 1960s, as well as giving some of his Nobel prize money.

"These Beckett letters are very significant for Beckett scholarship at Trinity College, as well as nationally and internationally. We have been developing collections of significant Irish creative writers, and these letters build on the existing Beckett collections the Library already holds," said Librarian and College Archivist, Helen Shenton.

"We welcome the opportunity to be able to share these collections with students of Beckett and researchers across the globe. To mark its arrival, we have mounted a small exhibition in the Long Room for those who would like to view this precious correspondence. We intend to make it more widely accessible for scholars and for the general public in the future."

(IT/MH)