{"id":182,"date":"2019-09-06T08:55:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T07:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/beckett\/?page_id=182"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:10:14","slug":"the-beckett-collection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/beckett\/the-beckett-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beckett Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About the Beckett Collection<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Beckett Collection is the world's largest collection of materials related to Nobel Prize winning writer, Samuel Beckett. With its extensive range of manuscripts, letters, books, recordings, artefacts, and other materials, it was hailed by renowned film director and screenwriter, Anthony Minghella, as one of the \"best-kept arts secrets in Britain\" (The Observer<\/em>, 17\/09\/06). It has also been recognised as being of national and international importance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council of Britain.<\/p>\n

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The collection originated in an exhibition organised by James Knowlson in 1971, for which Beckett and his friends donated materials. Beckett's support of the collection continued until his death in 1989. His personal donations include manuscripts, livres d'artiste,<\/em> and paintings by Geer van Velde, Henri Hayden and Avigdor Arikha. Since then, the archive has continued to grow, with donated and purchased acquisitions including the original Murphy\u00a0<\/em>manuscript, the Knowlson Collection and the Billie Whitelaw Collection.<\/p>\n

The collection currently houses:<\/p>\n