During the year 2001, there have been 21 books on Beckett published in English and French alone, the same number in 2000 and 15 in 1999. Among them are such titles as The Complete Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett (2000, Pattie David), The philosophy of Samuel Beckett (2001, John Calder), Beckett and Religion (2000, Marius Buning) Beckett and Eros (2000, Paul Davies), Beckett and Postructuralism (1999, Anthony Uhlmann) Beckett and Beyond (1999, Bruce Steward), Engagement and Indifference: Beckett and the Political (2001, Henry Sussman), Chronicles of Disorder: Samuel Beckett and the Cultural Politics of the Modern Novel (2000, David Weisberg), The Painted Word: Samuel Beckett’s Dialogue With Art (2000, Lois Oppenheim), Samuel Beckett and the Arts (1999, Lois Oppenheim), Saying I No More: Subjectivity and Consciousness in the Prose of Samuel Beckett (1999, Daniel Katz), Empty Figure on an Empty Stage: the Theatre of Samuel Beckett (2001, Less Essif), Samuel Beckett’s Theatre: Life Journeys (1999, Katharine Worth), After the Final No: Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy (1999, Thomas Cousinau), Sails of the Herring Fleet: Essays on Beckett (2000, Herbert Blau), plus memoirs and critical collections: How It Was: a Memoir of Samuel Beckett (2001, Anne Atik), and others entitled simply Samuel Beckett (2001, Peter Brockmeier, 2000, Manuel Montalvo, 2000, Jennifer Birkett) or even simpler, Beckett (1999, Didier Anzieu). Only a few authors in Western Literature have been written about so often, but the writing keeps coming, and Beckett has the luck (or misfortune) to be one of the most popular targets. We can’t go on, but we go on. Fact: there is a vast body of work to ponder and Beckett’s elusiveness is particularly open to generating what Gordon Rogoff calls the Beckett Industry. Can it be that, by now, we don’t need another book on Beckett?
