Beckett’s manuscripts loaned out for exhibition on editing

Materials from the University of Reading’s Samuel Beckett Collection have been loaned to a new exhibition focussing on the creative importance of revision in literature. 

Write, Cut, Rewrite delves into the editing, cutting and creative undoing of some of the world's most celebrated authors.  

The exhibition will be hosted at The University of Oxford’s Weston Library (part of The Bodleian Libraries) from 29 February 2024 to 5 January 2025. 

Curated by Mark Nixon, Professor of Modern Literature and Beckett Studies at the University of Reading and Dirk Van Hulle, Professor of Bibliography and Modern Book History at the University of Oxford, the exhibition will offer a peek behind the scenes into writers’ workshops, drawing on The Bodleian Libraries’ unparalleled collection of modern manuscripts from the 18th century to the present.  

Professor Mark Nixon said: “The University of Reading is home to the largest collection of Beckett materials in the world. Over the past 50 years, Reading has collected a wide range of manuscripts, notebooks and papers related to Samuel Beckett.  

“We are pleased to support The Bodleian Libraries’ new exhibition with the loan of several manuscripts and notebooks by Beckett, which provide an intimate insight into how he carefully crafted some of his most famous works, making him one of the most revered playwrights, novelists and poets of our time.” 

Materials loaned to the exhibition include the manuscript of Beckett’s abandoned play Human Wishes (about Samuel Johnson), the first draft of his play Not I, as well as the original notebook containing Beckett’s first novel, Murphy.  

Write, Cut, Rewrite also touches on the revisions and rewritings of famous books, offering visitors a unique chance to look over the shoulder of literary greats at the moment of creation. Highlights include discarded ideas, fundamental changes, deletions, additions, notes and scribbles from great authors such as Mary and Percy Shelley, Jane Austen, Jenny Joseph, James Joyce, Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming and John le Carré. 

Other insights from the cutting room floor include lists of Raymond Chandler’s similes, George Eliot’s reading notes, Franz Kafka’s original manuscript of the novel Das Schloss (The Castle), and the changes to the title of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. 

To accompany the exhibition, Bodleian Library Publishing released the catalogue Write, Cut, Rewrite: The Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature by Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon. 

Image (inset): Writer James Kelman looking through The University of Reading's archive collection of Beckett's work at the launch of the Samuel Beckett Research Centre in 2017