The eagerly awaited biography of Barbara Bray has just been released by publishers Routledge. Titled Barbara Bray, A Woman of Letters: Translator, Radio Producer, Scriptwriter, Critic, and Theatre Director it is the work of renowned Beckett scholar Pascale Sardin, Professor of English Literature and Translation Studies at Bordeaux Montaigne University in France.
Barbara Bray (1924-2010) is described as an ‘English woman of letters who translated some hundred novels, plays, and essays from French to English and was Marguerite Duras’s preferred translator. She also collaborated with some of the most prestigious directors and playwrights of the 20th century – Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, Joseph Losey, and Franco Zeffirelli – helping them write screenplays and radioplays’. The book’s publicity asserts that ‘this literary biography (re)evaluates in a textual, sociological, and historical perspective the social role of an English writer and translator in the history of ideas and contemporary art. Highlighting Bray’s influence in cultural transfers of ideas and literatures between France, Great Britain, and the United States, it renders visible the yet unrecognised work of a female mediator and creator. It nourishes the debate about women’s public voice and the representation of women in the media industries and contributes to enrich the ‘other’ history that is being currently written by feminist scholars around the world’. This volume will undoubtedly enrich the understanding of the creative milieu in which Beckett worked and will complement recent scholarship on frequently under-appreciated figures in his circle.
The Samuel Beckett Society 