Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
En attendant Godot / Waiting for Godot

Catalogue

Due to an agreement with the Estate of Samuel Beckett and the publishers of Beckett's work, the digital edition of En attendant Godot / Waiting for Godot only contains draft versions leading up to the publication of the text (the so-called 'avant-texte'), including page proofs. It therefore excludes epigenetic material such as later annotated editions.

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MS-BNF-MY-440 (FN)

Exercise book 8 ½ x 7 in. Rectos filled beginning to end, then versos end to beginning. Earliest version. Started 9 Oct 1948, finished 29 Jan 1949. The original notebook of En attendant Godot remained in Beckett's possession until his death, when it entered the safekeeping of his French publisher. In 2006, Jérôme Lindon's family deposited the manuscript at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in accordance with Beckett's wishes.

Admussen, Richard L. (1979), The Samuel Beckett Manuscripts: A Study (Boston: G. K. Hall), p. 45.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FN.

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MS-MA-5071-1 (FP)

Playscript of En attendant Godot in the papers of set designer Sergio Gerstein at the Morgan Library & Museum (111 p., bound, 27 cm). The text features annotations in multiple writing tools and hands, including that of Beckett. A drawing in red ink on the final page shows Pozzo and Lucky. In addition to a broadcast on RTF radio and early rehearsals for the Paris premiere, this playscript was used to set the first Minuit edition.

The Morgan Library & Museum, CORSAIR Online Collection Catalog (http://www.themorgan.org/literary-historical/218757).

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FP.

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MS-OSU-RARE-115 (FN TMcG)

Seven lines of additional dialogue between E. (Estragon) and V. (Vladimir). This fragment, entitled 'Godot', was written in black ink on the last page of the 'Tara MacGowran' Notebook, preserved in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library of Ohio State University. The lines were probably drafted when En attendant Godot was still scheduled to premiere at the Théâtre de Poche, but they were never added the text of the play.

Admussen, Richard L. (1979), The Samuel Beckett Manuscripts: A Study (Boston: G. K. Hall), p. 88.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FN TMcG.

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MS-BL-LCP-1954-23 (ETLC)

Playscript of Waiting for Godot, with a green cover, preserved in the Lord Chamberlain Play Collection of the British Library. Not typed by Beckett, this copy is based on his first draft translation of the play. The only annotations are red markings by the censor, highlighting problematic passages such as the erection scene in Act I.

The British Library, Lord Chamberlain Play Collection (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/censored-script-of-waiting-for-godot-by-samuel-beckett).

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ETLC.

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MS-HRC-DA-145-1 (ET Albery)

Playscript of Waiting for Godot preserved in the Donald Albery papers (Performing Arts Collection, HRC, box 145, folder 1). Apart from the red cover, the typed text is otherwise identical to that of ETLC. Annotations in blue ink are extensive, though not in Beckett's hand. Some bring the text in line with the cuts demanded by the Lord Chamberlain, or the Grove Press edition of the play, while still others are unique to this version. It is unclear if Beckett authorized these variants, but many of them found their way into the first British edition of the play (Faber and Faber, 1956). Grey pencil annotations are limited to Vladimir's lines, so the script possibly belonged to an actor who played this character.

Donald Albery papers, The Performing Arts Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC), Austin, Texas (http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/performingarts/info/).

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ET Albery.

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MS-TCD-10730 (ETP)

Waiting for Godot. Incomplete typescript sent by Beckett to Alan Simpson. Flimsy paper. Much worn. Very few corrections by Beckett. Used and marked in rehearsals. Originally in loose sheets held together by a split pin. Conserved and bound in white vellum boards after arrival in the Library. 91 fols, ts. 270x213mm.

Maxwell, Jane, (2006), ed. 'The Samuel Beckett Manuscripts at Trinity College Library Dublin'. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui 16, p. 193.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ETP.

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MS-HRC-SB-6-4-1 (EFC-N1)

'Waiting for Godot.' Autograph manuscript, signed, 165 pp., written in two small-4to notebooks (first of two). This manuscript of Beckett's translation of Godot into English is not the original but a fair copy made for the rare books and manuscripts dealer Jake Schwartz. It is based on the 1954 Grove Press edition of the play but shows a few minor variants.

Lake, Carlton, ed. (1984), No Symbols Where None Intended: A Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts and Other Material Relating to Samuel Beckett in the Collections of the Humanities Research Center (Austin: Humanities Research Center), p. 68, item 130.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as EFC-N1.

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MS-HRC-SB-6-4-2 (EFC-N2)

'Waiting for Godot.' Autograph manuscript, signed, 165 pp., written in two small-4to notebooks (second of two). This manuscript of Beckett's translation of Godot into English is not the original but a fair copy made for the rare books and manuscripts dealer Jake Schwartz. It is based on the 1954 Grove Press edition of the play but shows a few minor variants.

Lake, Carlton, ed. (1984), No Symbols Where None Intended: A Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts and Other Material Relating to Samuel Beckett in the Collections of the Humanities Research Center (Austin: Humanities Research Center), p. 68, item 130.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as EFC-N2.

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MS-HRC-SB-6-2-3 (FFC)

['En attendant Godot']. Autograph manuscript, fair copy, with minor corrections, 156 pp. The text has been written on small-4to pages removed from an exercise book and tipped onto blank sheets of white drawing paper. The present copy was made by Beckett for Jake Schwartz, a dentist-turned-bookseller, who sold it to T. E. Hanley, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, one of the major American collectors of twentieth-century rare books and manuscripts.

Lake, Carlton, ed. (1984), No Symbols Where None Intended: A Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts and Other Material Relating to Samuel Beckett in the Collections of the Humanities Research Center (Austin: Humanities Research Center), p. 66, item 124.

Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FFC.