Sighle Kennedy papers, 1920s-1996, bulk 1963-1996

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Series III: Scholarly material for projected Watt monograph, 1969-1996

This series contains materials gathered and produced by Kennedy during the long period in which she researched and drafted what she hoped would be a monograph on Beckett's development of Watt from manuscript to publication. Photocopies of literary and scholarly writings — here called "research materials" — have been separated from Kennedy's loose notes, notebooks and drafts. Many of the research materials are annotated by Kennedy.


Subseries III.1: Watt materials at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin

The research materials include lightly annotated photocopies of Beckett's manuscript notebooks and typescripts forWatt.Kennedy's initial notes on the materials are also placed here.



Box 3 Folder 1 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook I


Box 3 Folder 2 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook II


Box 3 Folder 3 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook III


Box 3 Folder 4 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook IV


Box 3 Folder 5 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook IV insert


Box 3 Folder 6 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook V


Box 3 Folder 7 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook VI


Box 3 Folder 8 Photocopy of Watt manuscript notebook, "Revision of Watt, section 1"



Box 4 Folder 1-2 Photocopy of Watt typescript, Part I, (2 Folders)


Box 4 Folder 3-4 Photocopy of Watt typescript, Part II, (2 Folders)


Box 4 Folder 5 Photocopies of Watt manuscripts and typescript


Box 4 Folder 6 Sighle Kennedy's notes on HRC Watt materials


Subseries III.2: Watt and other Beckett materials at other universities

This small subseries contains photocopied excerpts of the Beckett materials housed at OSU and Washington U. — theWattgalleys, the manuscripts and typescripts ofHappy DaysandThat Time— and Kennedy's notes on them. Also included here are photocopies of catalogues listing Reading's and TCD's Beckett holdings.


Box 4 Folder 7 Photocopies of Watt materials at Ohio State University


Box 4 Folder 8 Photocopies of Happy Days and That Time manuscripts and typescripts at OSU


Box 4 Folder 9 Sighle Kennedy's notes on OSU Beckett materials


Box 4 Folder 10 Photocopy of Watt galleys at Washington University-St. Louis


Box 4 Folder 11 Photocopies of catalogues of Beckett materials at University of Reading and Trinity College Dublin


Subseries III.3: Notes and drafts for the Watt monograph, undated

Contained in this subseries are the notes and drafts Kennedy assigned to specific sections of the projected monograph. The sections, which are designated by a combination of roman numerals and letters, correspond to her outline (Folder 1). Notes and drafts not assigned to a specific section are located afterward. An undated draft of a scholarly article related to this project, "A Hidden Passage in the History of Samuel Beckett's Art: His Early Notebooks ofWatt," completes this grouping.



Box 5 Folder 1 Outline for Kennedy's projected monograph on Watt , undated


Box 5 Folder 2 Notes and drafts for introduction, undated


Box 5 Folder 3 Notes and drafts, Section Ib, undated


Box 5 Folder 4 Notes and drafts, Sections Ic and Ie, undated


Box 5 Folder 5 Notes and drafts, Section Id, undated


Box 5 Folder 6 Notes and drafts, Section IIa, undated


Box 5 Folder 7 Notes and drafts, Section IIb, undated


Box 5 Folder 8 Notes and drafts, Section IIc, undated


Box 5 Folder 9 Notes and drafts, Section IId, undated


Box 5 Folder 10 Notes and drafts, Section IIe, undated


Box 5 Folder 11-12 Notes and drafts, section unassigned, undated, (2 Folders)



Box 6 Folder 1 Notes and drafts, section unassigned, undated


Box 6 Folder 2 Draft of scholarly article on Watt: "A Hidden Passage in the History of Samuel Beckett's Art: His Early Notebooks of Watt," undated.


Subseries III.4: Notes and drafts for Watt monograph, 1969-1996

Subseries 4 includes dated notebooks, loose notes and drafts Kennedy wrote while working on theWattproject. The notebooks occasionally feature revealing diary-style entries on a number of topics, which range from her first meeting with Beckett in Paris (in the summer of 1973), to her attitude toward the Irish writer and toward her own scholarly work and abilities. The drafts show Kennedy's intensive revision process; she heavily annotated, rearranged and reworked passages multiple times. This group of material also contains two further drafts of a long essay version of theWattmonograph, one dated 1982 and one submitted posthumously by Kennedy's sister, Sr. Ethne Kennedy, in 1997 (it is dated here 1996 because this is the latest version of the draft extant in Kennedy's files upon her death that year).


Box 6 Folder 3 Notebook containing diary entries, letter drafts, and notes on Watt project, 1969-1974


Box 6 Folder 4 Notes on visit to Paris and first meeting with Beckett, 1973 June-August, 1973


Box 6 Folder 5 Notes on interview with Henry Wenning, 1973 September


Box 6 Folder 6 Note (incomplete), 1973 October


Box 6 Folder 7 Notebook containing diary entries and drafts, 1975 August-1976 March, 1975


Box 6 Folder 8 Loose notes and notebook, 1976 June-July, 1976


Box 6 Folder 9 Loose notes and notebook, 1977 January-March


Box 6 Folder 10 Loose notes, notebook, and diary entries, 1979 July-December


Box 6 Folder 11 Loose notes and notebook, 1980 February


Box 6 Folder 12 Notes and drafts, 1981


Box 6 Folder 13 Notes and drafts, 1982


Box 6 Folder 14 Typescript draft of "'Astride of a Grave and a Difficult Birth': Samuel Beckett's Watt Struggles to Life,", 1982



Box 7 Folder 1 Notebook, 1983 November


Box 7 Folder 2 Notes and drafts, 1983-1984


Box 7 Folder 3 Notes and drafts, 1984


Box 7 Folder 4 Notebook containing notes and diary entries, 1984-1986


Box 7 Folder 5 Loose notes, 1986-1987


Box 7 Folder 6 Notebook, 1988-1990 "Notes resuming on Watt notebooks", 1988-1990


Box 7 Folder 7 Full typescript of "'Astride of a Grave and a Difficult Birth': Samuel Beckett's Watt Struggles to Life,", 1996


Subseries III.5: Assigned research material for Watt monograph, undated

Placed here are the research materials Kennedy had gathered for specific sections of theWattproject. The folders in which these photocopies were contained, and some of the documents themselves, are labeled with section numbers. The assignments themselves are occasionally unclear — some documents have more than one section number written on them — but every effort has been made to reproduce as much of the structure of Kennedy's projected monograph as is possible based on the organization of her research materials.


Box 7 Folder 8 Introduction


Box 7 Folder 9 Sections Ib and Ic


Box 7 Folder 10 Section II, "Game"


Box 7 Folder 11 Section IIb



Box 8 Folder 1 Section IId


Box 8 Folder 2 Section III


Subseries III.6: Unassigned research material for Watt monograph, undated

This small subseries contains research materials which Kennedy had not assigned to a section of herWattstudy. They include newspaper clippings, photocopies taken from books — including the published German-language director's book forWaiting for Godot— and a photocopy of an untitled document which details, in English, the changes Beckett made to theGodotscript when he directed the play in German in 1975. Also placed here are photocopies and photographs of paintings — by Caspar David Friedrich, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Giovanni Bellini, James Slatney and Hieronymus Bosch — related to Kennedy'sWattresearch.


Box 8 Folder 3 Photocopies of articles, news clippings, and encyclopedia entries


Box 8 Folder 4 Material on Beckett's Regiebuch for Warten auf Godot


Box 8 Folder 5 Photographs and photocopies of paintings related to Watt research