Peter Fifield, Editor
As the newsletter’s new editor it’s a pleasure to welcome readers to the first online issue of The Beckett Circle. The change in format is one move among several, as the Circle is now based in England and the Presidency of the Samuel Beckett Society is set to make the same shift from the United States at the end of the calendar year. The shift to Internet publication means, though, that this geographical move is less significant than it appears. Holding the newsletter’s features and reviews online means that we can become more clearly international than ever before. I hope the newsletter’s content and readership will continue to reflect this, and encourage readers to contact the editor to suggest articles, interviews, reviews and images that would be of interest to followers of Beckett’s work. Moving from paper editions allows the issues of the newsletter to grow or shrink to accommodate the content submitted, and stands to make the Circle a more comprehensive and more varied resource. In order to maintain the flavour of the publication rather than transform it into a blog with a drip-feed of features, we will retain the publication dates of previous issues, with Autumn and Spring issues each year. Should readers wish to preserve the habit of reading from paper this will also make it easier to print out an image of the web pages.
This first issue is entirely open access and aims, as with past print issues, to show to members of the Society what has been happening in the world of Beckettiana during the past six months. It also aims to contact those who might like to join the Society or to renew an elapsed membership. As such, we are running a small lottery for new members of the society who will be eligible to win one of the most recent Beckett-related publications by Palgrave, who have kindly offered a selection of their works to give away.
Subsequent issues will be accessible to members, and we aim to provide, when possible, electronic copies of past issues. Other developments for this stage are in the pipeline, and I look forward to sharing them with you.
A final word must go to Rhys Tranter whose work on this website is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, most welcome by Beckett fans. Ongoing thanks are due to him for the design, construction and maintenance of the site.
Email: samuelbeckettsociety@gmail.com
Twitter: @BeckettSociety
Published in The Beckett Circle, Autumn 2012.
The Samuel Beckett Society 