Lost Beckett Story To Be Published
A lost story by Irish writer Samuel Beckett (pictured) will go on sale next month — 80 years after it was rejected by his publisher for being a “nightmare†read. “Echo’s Bones” was originally commissioned as the final tale of “More Pricks Than Kicks,” Beckett’s collection of inter-related stories that was published in 1934. But the Dublin writer’s then publisher, Charles Prentice at Chatto & Windus, rejected the 13,500 -word story for being too obscure and baffling. In a blunt letter, Prentice told the famed writer: “It’s a nightmare…It gives me the jim-jams…’Echo’s Bones’ would, I am sure, lose the book a great many readers. “People will shudder and be puzzled and be confused; and they won’t be keen on analysing the shudder.†He then added: “I hate having to say this.†Thanks a little.
