Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable
Catalogue
Due to an agreement with the Estate of Samuel Beckett and the publishers of Beckett's work, the digital edition of L'Innommable / The Unnamable 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 HRC SB/3/10 (FN1)"'L'Innommable'. Autograph manuscript, signed, begun 29 March 1949, completed at Ussy, January 1950, 284pp., folio. Written in ink and in pencil in two cloth-bound ledgers. With autograph deletions and emendations throughout. The flyleaf of Notebook I has an autograph note: 'This is the original MS / of L'Innommable / written 1949-50 and / published by the Editions / de Minuit May 1953. / Samuel Beckett / in 2 notebooks.' Two 4to sheets of autograph text and corrections are tipped in at the end. Autograph notes inside back cover." 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), pp. 59-60, item 109 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FN1 |
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MS HRC SB/4/1 (FN2)"'L'Innommable'. Autograph manuscript, signed, begun 29 March 1949, completed at Ussy, January 1950, 284pp., folio. Written in ink and in pencil in two cloth-bound ledgers. With autograph deletions and emendations throughout. The flyleaf of Notebook I has an autograph note: 'This is the original MS / of L'Innommable / written 1949-50 and / published by the Editions / de Minuit May 1953. / Samuel Beckett / in 2 notebooks.' Two 4to sheets of autograph text and corrections are tipped in at the end. Autograph notes inside back cover." 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), pp. 59-60, item 109 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FN2 |
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MS UoR 1227/7/9/1 (FLS)"Original manuscript of untitled opening page of draft of L'Innommable. Undated. One leaf, taken neatly from a broadlined exercise book. 21 x 17 cm. This draft begins 'Où maintenant?' and concludes 'je ne me tairai jamais. Jamais'. Written in dark blue ball-pen. Forty-six lines of text, covering a page and a half. Light to moderate corrections, the majority being complete deletions with a single instance of substitution. Beckett does not observe the lines of the paper; the text becomes increasingly densely packed as the draft develops to accommodate two or even three lines of script in the single line space. This section constitutes a slightly variant draft of the opening section of the published version of L'Innommable." Bryden, Mary, Julian Garforth and Peter Mills (1998), Beckett at Reading: Catalogue of the Beckett Manuscript Collection at the University of Reading (Reading: Whiteknights Press and the Beckett International Foundation), p. 183 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as FLS |
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MS HRC SB/5/9/1 (EN1)"Written in blue and red inks in three notebooks. Each notebook has, in Beckett's hand, the title, number of the notebook, and the note, 'original manuscript of the author's translation'. The second notebook has the additional phrase (title?) 'Beyond words?' The last manuscript page of the third notebook bears the inscription: 'This is the original MS of my translation of L'Innommable / For my friend Jake Schwartz, / with my best wishes. / Samuel Beckett / March 1958.'" 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. 62, item 112 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as EN1 |
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MS HRC SB/5/9/2 (EN2)"Written in blue and red inks in three notebooks. Each notebook has, in Beckett's hand, the title, number of the notebook, and the note, 'original manuscript of the author's translation'. The second notebook has the additional phrase (title?) 'Beyond words?' The last manuscript page of the third notebook bears the inscription: 'This is the original MS of my translation of L'Innommable / For my friend Jake Schwartz, / with my best wishes. / Samuel Beckett / March 1958.'" 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. 62, item 112 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as EN2 |
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MS HRC SB/5/9/3 (EN3)"Written in blue and red inks in three notebooks. Each notebook has, in Beckett's hand, the title, number of the notebook, and the note, 'original manuscript of the author's translation'. The second notebook has the additional phrase (title?) 'Beyond words?' The last manuscript page of the third notebook bears the inscription: 'This is the original MS of my translation of L'Innommable / For my friend Jake Schwartz, / with my best wishes. / Samuel Beckett / March 1958.'" 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. 62, item 112 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as EN3 |
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MS HRC SB/5/10 (ET1)"Typed manuscript, completed June 1958, 150pp., 4to, half-morocco, raised bands, top edges gilt. Heavily revised, mostly in Beckett's hand. On page 1, Beckett has written: '1st revision up to p. 25.' The typescript includes carbon copies of the extracts sent to the Chicago Review and The Texas Quarterly, so designated in Beckett's hand (and one other)." 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. 62, item 113 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ET1 |
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MS HRC TQ/2/18/1 (TQT1)"'[Extract from] The Unnamable'. Typed manuscript, 4pp., 4to. With several revisions, in black ink, in Beckett's hand, and with a few blue-crayon indications to the printer in another. Typescript submitted to The Texas Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1958). This is the ribbon copy of the carbon typescript entitled 'Extract from The Unnamable' and marked in Beckett's hand 'Texas Review' which he incorporated, with further revision, into a later typescript [MS-HRC-SB-5-10] of the full work. Beckett has deleted 'Extract from' in the title of the typescript sent to The Texas Quarterly and has added at the end of the excerpt '(Translated by the author from the original French.)'." 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. 62, item 114 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as TQT1 |
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MS HRC TQ/2/18/2 (TQT2)"Typed manuscript of Beckett's text, together with Hayman's introduction, marked in blue crayon and in pencil with instructions to the printer, 11pp., 4to." 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. 63, item 115b abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as TQT2 |
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MS HRC TQ/2/18/3 (TQP)"Proof sheets, from The Texas Quarterly, of Beckett's text and Hayman's introduction. With two corrections, 5pp., 4to." 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. 63, item 115c abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as TQP |
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MS WU MSS008/3/71 (ET2)Typescript, 142pp, 27 x 21 cm. Copy from which the first Grove Press edition (1958) was set. Infrequent corrections and revisions in blue and black pen, printer's marks in pencil. see Admussen, Richard L. (1979), The Samuel Beckett Manuscripts: A Study (Boston: G. K. Hall), p. 87 abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ET2 |
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt