It is with great sadness that the Samuel Beckett Society notes the passing of Martha Dow Fehsenfeld who has been such a central and important figure in the area of Beckett Studies, and one of the founding forces behind the Society. Her loss is felt by all who encountered her and her legacy within the discipline cannot be overstated.
In appreciation, we publish this obituary by her friend and colleague Lois Overbeck:
Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, founding editor of The Letters of Samuel Beckett, died in Hampton, New Hampshire on 8 November 2024. She is survived by her brothers Winthrop Griffin Dow and William Merrill Dow, Bill’s wife Barbara Birt Dow, and five loving nieces and nephews and their families. Martha Dow Fehsenfeld (Marty) was born on 12 November 1930 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Ann Merrill Dow and Winthrop Griffin Dow. She was briefly married to William Tarun Fehsenfeld of Baltimore in 1963; the marriage ended in divorce.
Commissioned by Samuel Beckett to edit his voluminous correspondence, Marty was a major force in illuminating and guiding Beckett studies. Her contributions encompassed academic study, theatrical production, and acting several of Beckett’s roles for women. Edward Beckett wrote: “Samuel Beckett placed his confidence in Martha Fehsenfeld to edit his correspondence for publication. This trust was repaid in full by her dedication to that difficult task. I have the greatest admiration for what she achieved.” In the words of Beckett biographer James Knowlson, “Marty was not only a fervent admirer and perceptive critic of Beckett’s work, she was also most generous with both her knowledge and her time. The diversity and singularity of all of her activities is stunning. Her contributions are sui generis. We are all deeply indebted to her.”
Marty studied at Bennington College (B.A.), the University of North Carolina (M.A.), and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate at Bennington, she met Wallace Fowlie, a noted scholar of Dante; later, when he was a Professor at Duke University and she lived in Chapel Hill, the two became close friends. “Dante brought her to Beckett,” observed Alice N. Benston, Associate Dean for Special Projects in the Graduate School of Emory University.
Seeking an opportunity to learn more about Beckett’s work, Marty joined a course on Beckett in the Berkeley Summer School at Oxford University taught by Rosemary Pountney (1972). By fall, having asked Pountney to tutor her privately, Marty settled in Oxford to pursue their work together. “Her enthusiasm was so great and the discussion so stimulating,” recalled Pountney. Marty visited Reading University, where James Knowlson had begun to assemble a Beckett archive. She became captivated by the archival record of Beckett’s writing process.
Marty also came to know Beckett’s plays from “the inside” by helping to produce them. In 1975, she assisted Alan Schneider, the American Director of Beckett’s work, at a Beckett Workshop at Stanford University. She was a Production Assistant for Schneider at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York (1976). In 1981, she assisted Schneider with the world premiere of Beckett’s play Ohio Impromptu at The Ohio State University and at the Centre de Georges Pompidou in Paris at a festival celebrating Beckett’s 75th birthday.
From 1976 on, Marty chronicled Samuel Beckett as a director of his own plays, at London rehearsals of Footfalls (1976), Happy Days (1979), Endgame (1980) and Waiting for Godot (1984). She originated and co-directed an exhibition, In the Company of Joyce and Beckett, for the James Joyce Centenary at University College, Dublin (1982). The outcome of observing Beckett at work was Beckett in the Theatre: The Author as Practical Playwright and Director (1988), co-authored with Dougald McMillan. Their “approach combines rigorous literary formalism with a sensitive and sensible awareness of the realities of theater and theatrical space” (William Gruber).
Marty was a collaborator. When something needed to be done, she gathered others and saw to it. “She forged ahead against the crowd, determined, fearless” (Linda Ben-Zvi). Beckett’s radio plays had been written for and broadcast by the BBC in London and SDR in Stuttgart, but they were unavailable to American listeners. So Marty originated The Beckett Festival of Radio Plays, inviting director Everett Frost and producer Louise Cleveland, as well as leading actors Billie Whitelaw, David Warrilow, Barry McGovern, Alvin Epstein, and others to take part. The project was supported in part by the NEH and the NEA, as well as the involvement of dozens of Beckett scholars as Humanities consultants whose discussions provided “a paradoxical sense of connection among all who shared the solitary listening experience” (Louise Cleveland). All That Fall was the first broadcast on Beckett’s 80th birthday in 1986. The complete Festival premiered on National Public Radio in April 1989. Individual plays received high accolades. Louise Cleveland said, “Never did I see Martha lose her certainty that all chasms would be bridged and all needed resources recruited.”
When Samuel Beckett asked Marty to edit his letters in 1985, he wrote: “It will be a most difficult job, and I am relieved at the thought of it being in such devoted and capable hands as yours.” She enlisted as co-editors the late George Craig (University of Sussex, also the French translator), Dan Gunn (The American University of Paris), and Lois More Overbeck (Emory University). In 1990, the editorial project affiliated with Emory University’s Laney Graduate School and The American University in Paris. Grants from the NEH, the Florence Gould Foundation, various Beckett archives, and private gifts supported the research of the edition.
At Emory, Alice Benston responded immediately to Marty’s talents: “It did not take but a moment to see what Sam saw: a knowledgeable scholar; utterly devoted to him and his work. I could hear him saying to her ‘you will get round to see these people, won’t you?’” The “people” were his correspondents and associates. Lois Overbeck noted, “This was not a rhetorical question. We readily assented, and as we approached the daunting task of editing his letters, Beckett’s directive made all the difference.” For Samuel Beckett, letters bridged the time and distance between friends, family, colleagues, and younger writers. His correspondence was about relationships.
Editing Samuel Beckett’s letters was a collaborative effort on a grander scale. In public and personal archives, the editors discovered over 15,000 letters written by the playwright from 1929 to 1989. Then they transcribed, translated, researched, selected letters for publication, and annotated them. Cambridge University Press published The Letters of Samuel Beckett in four volumes (2009-2016). The edition has been translated into French (Gallimard), German (Suhrkamp), Italian (in process, Adephi), and Chinese (in process, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House). In April 2021, Trinity College Dublin (Beckett’s alma mater) awarded Martha Fehsenfeld an Honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of her contributions to Beckett scholarship.
During this time, Marty also acted in Beckett’s plays. She produced and played Winnie in Happy Days in 1983 at The Artschool Gallery Theatre (Carrboro, North Carolina), La Mama Experimental Theatre (New York), and Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Georgia). She appeared in Footfalls with Theatre Emory’s celebration of Beckett’s 90th birthday (1996), and performed in Rockaby, directed by Walter Asmus, at Seven Stages (Atlanta 2006). Of this production, Emory colleague David Hesla recounted:
Her first word is ‘more.’
Our first sight is of her face looking up, just to the left.
After she holds it there for a moment, she says ‘More?’ It is a plaintiive quesiton.
But she does say more, a little more.
Then, after those terrible last words, she says no more.
I experienced Rockaby in its awful fullness.
Lisa Tedesco, Dean Emerita of the Laney Graduate School, remarked: “If I were to say one thing about Marty and Beckett it would be this: being with Marty was as close as one could get to being with Samuel Beckett. She knew Beckett from all sides…through and through…and with her work, brought so much more of him to all of us.” Her efforts were unstinting and intended to be shared.
Marty was a life-long learner, and she inspired others to join her. Jennifer Jeffers, and other former graduate students at Emory responded to her “open attitude and willingness to engage with new ideas and approaches”; Jeffers dedicated her first book to Marty, thanking her for truly welcoming younger scholars. “As the friends and scholars who have known her warmth and dedication can attest,” wrote Derval Tubridy, “it is she who has kept it all ‘revolving’ and has enabled so many to take the next step, to keep ‘going on’.” Laura Barlament reflected: “Working with Marty was integral to the lasting impression I have of Beckett – as a humane, gentle, and entirely unpretentious man.”
Like Samuel Beckett, Marty had an inherent gift for friendship, for listening. Marek Kedzierski, and many others speak of Marty’s “intellectual curiosity and her interest in people, her gift of empathy and her willingness to listen.” Hersh Zeifman wrote: “She has enriched the lives of countless students of Beckett’s work with her meticulous scholarship, both on the page and on the stage, and with the sheer joy she communicates in sharing her deep love of Beckett the man and Beckett the writer.” Lois Overbeck concurred: “Her warmth, integrity, and attention was direct and personal. Hers was a passion that does not flit, but hones. The work of her lifetime has been to honor that which speaks to her, and to others, most deeply.”
When Marty moved from Chapel Hill to Bath, Maine in 2014, she found a welcoming community and made many new friends. In 2017 she performed with The Theatre Project in nearby Brunswick, playing a role not unlike herself, in a play where a young boy fights on behalf of others (Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt). Here she reveled in the joy of working with young actors and with a script that resonated. A sold out performance for 11 days and standing ovations each evening in this black box theatre was a further testament to Marty’s ageless passionate spirit.
For Marty, every question became a passage – a place in time, a pathway toward, a generous and open fellowship.
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If you wish to share personal memories or appreciations, please address them to Lois Overbeck at lois.overbeck@emory.edu
To make a gift in Marty’s memory follow this link
The Samuel Beckett Society 