Student library info ▿The Student library info pertains to the period when Beckett was a student at Trinity College Dublin (1923-1927) and a lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and TCD (1928-1931). It explains when he is thought to have acquired and read the book in question, based on his inscription, as well as various external sources including the official TCD college calendars, his 'Dream' Notebook, and his letters.Read: by October 1923.
Uncertain: the inscription indicates that Beckett's older brother first acquired and used this book. It is safe to speculate that it is this copy that Beckett consulted for the Junior Exhibition, despite the lack of reading traces. The only doubt that can be raised concerns Beckett's tone when on 5 January 1933 he writes to Thomas MacGreevy about reading Green: "I've been reading nothing but a little history (Greene! [for Green], his libel on poor Charles 2. The royal mumper!" (LSB I 150). The passing mention of the book combined with the spelling mistake point rather to a first reading than to a re-reading.
Source:The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 150.
A Short History of the English People
London: Macmillan, 1920 [1916]
rev. and enlarged ed.
Inscription:'F.E. Beckett / July 1920'
Available scans ▿cover, inscription, tp.
Source:
A Short History of the English People
London: Macmillan, 1920 [1916]
Inscription:
Available scans ▿cover, inscription, tp.
