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Mark Nixon, ed. Publishing Samuel Beckett. London: The British Library, 2011. 252 pp. ISBN 9780712358262
Publishing Samuel Beckett, edited by Mark Nixon, is one of those rare comprehensive essay collections that never stray from the topic and draw on a selection of the finest researchers in the field. The non-finite form of the verb "to publish" is aptly chosen in relation to Samuel Beckett. First of all, it conveys the sense of adventure involved in taking on a brilliant but daunting author who had the potential to yield spectacularly disappointing returns. In addition, the title underlines that the Beckett business is booming, with new editions of existing texts and posthumous publications appearing still. This polysemy of "publishing" is nicely reflected in the collection's multiple focus on the past, present and future of the Beckett canon.
Nixon's collection is divided into four sections, the first two dealing with the 1930s publications and Beckett's road to fame in the 1940s and 1950s. Although this chronological approach is methodologically justified, there is a downside. As the early chapters discuss a period in Beckett's career that was quite extensively covered in Damned to Fame (1996), James Knowlson's authorized biography, they offer the least refreshing insights. Nevertheless, a good selection from new archival sources adds more texture and flavour to what was already known. Also, the essays on Chatto & Windus (Andrew Nash and John Pilling), the early prose and poetry publications with Samuel Putnam and Nancy Cunard (Sean Lawlor) or Edward Titus and This Quarter (Lois More Overbeck), and the relationship with Beckett's first literary agent George Reavey (Mark Nixon), closely interlock and provide a solid basis for what is to follow.
The first section concludes with an essay by Sean Kennedy on Beckett's publishing history in Ireland. He rightly states that "[e] ven now, after the extensive Irish celebrations of Beckett's centenary in 2006, it remains difficult to assess Ireland's significance to his life and work, with recurrent anxieties about any overstatement of the case leading, at times, to an unnecessary reticence" (p. 57). By using Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework...