Inscribed by Beckett’s ‘Favourite Actress, Almost at Times His Muse’
BECKETT, Samuel. Rockaby and other Short Pieces. New York: Grove Press. 1981.
8vo. Original pale blue cloth, spine lettered in silver, in the dust-jacket designed by Janet Odgis, priced $12.50 to upper edge of front flap; pp. 80; spine somewhat sunned, slight pushing and fading to spine tips, jacket lettering a little faded, small loss of laminate (c. 15 × 15 mm) to upper edge of rear cover, light creasing to head of spine; a near-fine copy in like jacket; signature of Billie Whitelaw to front free endpaper, dated 16 February 1984; with a dated Rockaby faceted paperweight, engraved with the text ‘Rockaby 1984’, made by the renowned Belgian crystal manufacturer Val St. Lambert (see below).
First US edition, first printing, of the first appearances in print of Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu, the first in book form of A Piece of Monologue, and first US appearance of the prose All Strange Away, signed and dated by Billie Whitelaw, who gave the first performances of Rockaby, Beckett’s ‘favourite actress, almost at times his muse’ (Ackerley and Gontarski).
Rockaby was written for a conference at the Center for Theater Research, Buffalo, where it was directed by Alan Schneider with Whitelaw as the Woman and the Voice (respectively ‘W’ and ‘V’ in the text) first performed on 8 April 1981; the London première – reprising Buffalo – followed at the Cottesloe Theatre in December 1982. The role had originally been intended for Irene Worth, who withdrew shortly before rehearsals: ‘She’s gotten an offer to do a film, needed the money, etc’ (Alan Schneider to Beckett, 15 February 1981). Whitelaw’s assumption of the role was a relief to author and director alike: ‘Can’t tell you how delighted I am finally to be meeting Billie and working with her’ (ibid.).
A woman in a black evening gown sways rhythmically in a rocking chair, her movements precisely synchronised with the incantatory movement of her own recorded voice, which she intermittently joins with. The play may be seen and heard as a solemn, highly stylised counterpart to the earlier Krapp’s Last Tape, both turning on the interplay between live and recorded voices. Both draw upon early memories, Rockaby recalling Beckett’s ‘maternal grandmother, “little Granny”, Annie Roe, dressed in “her best black” sitting in a rocking chair at the window of Cooldrinagh, where she lived out the final years of her life’ (Knowlson). More distantly, we may recall the rocking chair in Murphy, the author’s first novel. Following the premiere, Schneider wrote to Beckett that ‘the general audience response has been excellent. They have sat fascinated and mesmerized […] The tape Billie made in London is superb, a real piece of music. […] How true and right your instincts and demands were on this one’ ([18] April 1981).
This copy of Rockaby and Other Short Pieces, from the library of director Alan Schneider, was signed and dated by Whitelaw during the run of a Beckett triple bill – Rockaby, Footfalls, and Enough – given at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, New York, opening 16 February 1984, Whitelaw appearing in all three works. The production was both critically and commercially successful. ‘Presumably by this time you are aware that the ROCKABY evening is the most sought-after theatre event of the season’, Schneider reported to Beckett. ‘All hell is breaking loose. We are selling out […], turning away hundreds on weekends. We are the talk of the town, and Billie has been absolutely besieged by newspaper and TV people; she has had hardly a moment to herself’ (2 March 1984). Whitelaw was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in the category of Outstanding Solo Performance, which may explain the faceted Val St. Lambert Rockaby 1984 paperweight/ornament accompanying this volume.
Provenance: From the library of Alan and Eugenie (‘Jean’) Schneider (d. 2025).
SKU: 2124811