BECKETT, SAMUEL
A twenty-year correspondence between Samuel Beckett and the noted Beckett scholar Tom Bishop. Approximately 44 items, consisting of holograph notecards, letters etc., variously signed "Sam" and "Samuel Beckett."; together with 8 notecards and a postcard addressed to Helen Gary Bishop by Samuel Beckett, 1980s. Similarly signed, most retaining envelopes. Usual folds to letters, generally in attractive condition.

Tom Bishop (1929-2022) was a leading authority on contemporary French literature and drama, and the author (with R. Federman) of the 1975 work Samuel Beckett. He was a recipient of the Grand Prix de l´Académie Française, a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and an Officier of the Légion d'Honneur, among many other honors. He maintained a long and cordial relationship with Samuel Beckett.

The inventory of his correspondence, all in his holograph, is as follows:
1969: Postcard signed
1972: Three notecards signed
1974: Two notecards signed
1975: Six notecards signed
1976: Notecard signed and two autograph letters signed on Hyde Park Hotel stationery
1977: Notecard signed
1978: Four notecards signed (two in envelopes)
1979: Notecard signed, autograph letter signed
1980: Four notecards signed (all in envelopes)
1981: Four notecards signed (three in envelopes), and an autograph letter signed
1982: Six notecards signed, four in envelopes
1985: Two notecards signed
1987: Two notecards signed
1988: One notecard signed
1989: Three notecards signed, and a single-page photocopies manuscript (a fair copy of "Comment dire," his final work) inscribed. With these are approximately ten envelopes from Beckett in his hand (likely from some of the preceding), a single line on a card in his hand, and retained copies of letters, and photocopies of Beckett correspondence received, most of which are present here in the originals.

The archive also includes Beckett's letters to Helen Gary Bishop, who was married to Tom Bishop. An actress and writer, she was the American translator of Ionesco's The Killing Game and the author of the essay that accompanied the first edition of Gary Winogrand's Women are Beautiful. This correspondence consists of seven holograph notecards in envelopes, 1977-83; a brief note on a scrap of card; and an autograph postcard. It is also accompanied by photocopies and related correspondence.