The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett

David Wheatley reviews the new volume from Faber & Faber

Photograph: Lütfi Özkök/Sipa/Rex

David Wheatley (The Irish Times) reviews Faber and Faber's The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett, edited by Seán Lawlor and John Pilling (link via Susan Tomaselli): 'While some authors’ posthumous work threatens to swamp their published oeuvre (Philip Larkin springs to mind), Beckett has yet to reach any such tipping point, and with the publication of his Collected Poems we at last have a reliable text of all the poetry Beckett published in his lifetime and the fullest picture to date of his uncollected and unpublished poems: it marks a key moment in Beckett studies, joining the revised editions of his prose that have appeared in recent years and with the bonus of a full scholarly apparatus.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Writers: Samuel Beckett
• Happy Days: Enniskillen International Beckett Festival

Philip Larkin, Letters to Monica

'Stylishly written and punctuated with drollery'

Philip Larkin

Christopher Hirst reviews Philip Larkin's Letters to Monica for The Independent: 'Discovered after the death of his lover Monica Jones in 2001, this epistolary haul traces Larkin's life from "frowning" Belfast to the "dreary dump" of Hull, with occasional visits to the "dirt and chilliness" of London.' [Read More]

Literary Friendships

Biographical connections between writers, poets and philosophers

Accredited Online Colleges has compiled a list of '11 Literary Friendships we can learn from', including Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson [Read More]

Disjecta: This week's links

Your guide to this week's best cultural links

Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe

Literature:

Samuel Beckett: J. M. Coetzee, John Banville, John Minihan, Simon Critchley, John Calder all to attend Samuel Beckett: Out of the Archive in June 2011
James Joyce: Wake in Progress: A new project that will attempt to illustrate James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
Gabriel Josipovici: The Millions reviews What Ever Happened to Modernism?
Paul Auster: 2003 interview with The Paris Review
Paul Auster: Review of The Red Notebook
Franz Kafka: Letter to the New York Times critiques Elif Batuman's portrait of Kafka
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Goethe's death mask
Philip Larkin: Review of Letters to Monica
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A. S. Byatt on Demons and political activism
State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico: Event to include readings from Paul Auster and Don DeLillo
Not the Booker Prize: Congratulations to the winners: Lee Rourke and Matthew Hooton
Marilyn Monroe's Reading Habits: New book, Fragments, includes references to Beckett, Conrad, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Kerouac, Camus, Ellison and more
Michael Dirda's favourite literary essayist
Saul Bellow: Rachel Cooke talks to Bellow's widow about the American writer, and also touches upon a collection of correspondence that includes John Cheever, Philip Roth and Martin Amis
William S. Burroughs shoots William Shakespeare

Philosophy & Critical Theory:

William Shakespeare: Cardiff Shakespeare launches publications page
Bible:  Review of Gordon Campbell's Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011

Art & Design:

Francis Bacon: Painting of cricketer to be auctioned in New York

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.

New Hardback editions of Faber Poetry

Designer Miriam Rosenbloom shares her thoughts on Faber's recent Poetry Hardback Collections

Faber's Poetry Hardback Collection

A new poetry series designed in collaboration with British printmakers, includes work by W. B. Yeats, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin and more. Faber and Faber's senior designer Miriam Rosenbloom discusses the inspiration behind the new look: 'This new set of books is based around a collection of some of our best-loved poet’s first published editions with Faber. My brief for the series was for the covers to look like ‘cousins’ rather than ’siblings’ to the first set.'

Source: Miriam Rosenbloom, British Printmakers and Faber Poetry, The Thought Fox, 24 June 2010

Disjecta: This week's links

Artist Tony Lee Jnr reimagines Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

Literature:

Philip Larkin: As the Larkin25 festival begins, Rachel Cooke explores the private life of the problematic poet
William Faulkner: Designer Tony Lee Jr reimagines Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying
Harper Lee: Author grants rare interview to The Mail on Sunday
Samuel Beckett on Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka on Loneliness
J. M. Coetzee: The Guardian reports that Coetzee has smiled in public. News indeed.
J. M. Coetzee: Coetzee scholar David Attwell interviews the writer about his work and influences
Beryl Bainbridge 1934-2010

Philosophy:

Slavoj Žižek: Interviewed by Sean O'Hagan in The Observer

Music

Miles Davis: A brief clip from Louis Malle's Lift to the Scaffold

Film & Television:

Slavoj Žižek: On the racist subtext of The Sound of Music
10 Great Films That Were Never Made
Watch Hitchcock's Rebecca at the London Freud Museum

Art:

Free Art: UK Government may consider charging admission to national arts galleries and museums
Charles Saatchi gives art gallery to the public

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.