The long-standing and ongoing project The Letters of Samuel Beckett at Emory University, which oversaw the publication of the four volumes of Beckett’s selected letters, has announced the launch of a new website to aid scholars in researching the author’s correspondence. The Interactive Index to the Letters of Samuel Beckett in Public Archives, has been developed with the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, and will ‘democratize access to the letters held in archives around the world. Its purpose is to facilitate research and to encourage discovery’.
Titled Chercher, which alludes both to the opening of a letter (“Cher ami)” and to the French term meaning “to seek”, The Interactive Index Project builds on the previous research done for The Letters of Samuel Beckett at Emory University. It incorporates the Location Register of the Letters of Samuel Beckett in Public Archives developed in collaboration with public archives The Location Register gives archival identification and descriptions (recipient, physical description, sender and recipient addresses, language, repository, collection, and previous publication).
The Interactive Index goes a step further by providing rich and nuanced metadata from the contexts of each letter. Indexed content includes persons, places, organizations, productions, and publications, as well as Beckett’s writing, translating, and reading. It also notes his attendance at public events (from tennis to recitals); this includes virtual attendance (recordings, radio, and television). The index also includes mentions in his letters of works of art, music, and global events. Faceted searches allow for refinement and invite the user to discover patterns and inter-relationships in the searchable datasets.
Context is provided with timelines of Beckett’s life and works (1906-1989), and global events. Major figures have biographical profiles with a capsule history of their relationship with the author. Filmed interviews bring faces and voices of recipients to the historical record. Links are given to the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and Staging Beckett, museum and theater websites, as well as standard references (viafs, geonames). Lois Overbeck, director of the project, states: “The purpose of Chercher is to stimulate, not replace, reading of the letters in context. The curated database opens fields of inquiry organically from Beckett’s letters. Only letters in public archives are included in the metadata, but new letters or letters currently in private collections are prepared for inclusion when these become accessible in a public archive.
To celebrate the launch of this invaluable website, Emory University is hosting a series of events this September.
An Exhibit: Selections from the Samuel Beckett Collections
Rose Library, Woodruff Library, Emory University, 14 September to 15 December 2023
19 September, Film showing of Waiting for Beckett, White Hall, 206, 6-8 pm and discussion
An award-winning documentary, made in 1995 for public television, introduced and discussed by Melissa Shaw-Smith, co-producer and co-director of Waiting for Beckett with the late John Reilly.
20 September, Unscripted Wisdom: Mastering the Art of Interviewing on Film,
11-12:30 am, Woodruff Commons Seminar Room, the Rose Library, 10th floor, Woodruff Library
Join a discussion about conducting and using interviews within research projects. The session will include examples of recorded interviews from the Rose Library’s John Reilly Samuel Beckett audiovisual material collection, as well as a Q&A with Melissa Shaw-Smith and Jonathan Coulis (oral history coordinator, Rose Library). Contact Gaby Hale, ghale3@emory.edu.
21 September, Launch of Chercher, Jones Room, Woodruff Library
Refreshments from 5:45 pm, program from 6:30-7:30. Parking from 6, Fishburne Deck
An overview of the project authorized by Samuel Beckett in 1985, and affiliated with Emory since 1990, the program includes readings from Beckett’s letters by Brenda Bynum and Robert Shaw-Smith, as well as recorded cameos.
You are invited to join in celbrating the partnership of the Letters of Samuel Beckett with the Laney Graduate School, Emory College, the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and the role that Emory students have played in its development.
For further information contact:
Lois More Overbeck,
Director, The Letters of Samuel Beckett Project
Emory University
lois.overbeck@emory.edu
404-727-6840
The Samuel Beckett Society 