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Samuel Beckett's Reading List

First Posted: 10/20/11 05:54 PM ET   Updated: 12/20/11 05:12 AM ET

From This Side of the Pond, Cambridge University Press' Blog

Samuel Beckett’s letters are full of the literary names he encountered through his work: authors he wrote about (Proust), poets he translated (Apollinaire), peers he monitored (Ionesco), and predecessors he admired (Joyce). But, in his non-professional life, Beckett was also an avid reader, discussing his favorite reads (and not-so-favorite) with many of his correspondents.

What did Beckett read in his spare time? These mentions from The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 2 (published today!) shed some light on what was on the writer’s nightstand during the period from 1941 to 1956.

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Michael Clanchy
25 Fans
09:18 PM on 10/22/2011
It's nice to know that at least a few writers read other important writers, instead of the ones today who seem to be satisfied with their intellectual insularity.
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Wookiee1972
105 Fans
09:45 AM on 10/22/2011
Very cool... I will have to check out some of the ones I haven't heard of (Octave Mirbeau, E.M. Cioran).

I do find it cool that Beckett kicked back and read thrillers, although the best thrillers do have lots to say about what used to be called "the human condition." Apparently William S. Burroughs liked to read Frederick Forsyth novels.
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JDM73
male, 38, writer/draughtsman/ex-musician
451 Fans
05:54 AM on 10/21/2011
You were a genius, Mr. Beckett. We love you still.
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scorpian777
197 Fans
01:48 PM on 10/22/2011
For sure!!
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Skygazer
The GOTP makes a mockery of the word freedom.
2728 Fans
03:01 AM on 10/21/2011
Interesting. It reminds me of what Faulkner said about reading everything. Good, bad, high and low art, genre etc...

Salinger is a bit of a surprise, but being that he read it probably in it's own time, I can understand now. Not that I don't love that book myself.

Interesting also his attraction to transgressive French lit: Celine, Lautremont, De Sade, Mirbeau etc...

Wonder if some of that pulp he liked is still around in print...
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americancolonyinhell
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06:44 PM on 10/20/2011
Such a handsome dude.
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Wookiee1972
105 Fans
09:46 AM on 10/22/2011
Indeed. Beckett and Camus pretty much created the notion of "cool author photo."
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