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University of Texas at Austin

Peter Snow:

A Preliminary Inventory of His Collection of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Snow, Peter (Peter Frederick Briscoe), 1927-2008
Title: Peter Snow Collection of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Dates: 1955-1957, undated
Extent: 1 box (.42 linear feet), 1 oversize folder (osf)
Abstract: The collection mainly contains material relating to the 1955 English-language world premiere of Waiting for Godot at the Arts Theatre in London.
Call Number: Manuscript Collection No. 5354
Language: English and other languages present in collection
Access: Open for research

Administrative Information


Acquisition: Purchase, 2014 (14-10-012-P)
Processed by: Stephen Cooper, 2015
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Scope and Contents


The Peter Snow Collection of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot contains material relating to the 1955 English-language world premiere of the play at the Arts Theatre in London. The collection includes Snow’s working copy of the script, which has his ownership signature on the first page and annotations, some a result of input from censors, throughout. With this script is a 1955 letter from director Peter Hall in which he asks Snow to design the set. The artwork in the collection includes two pencil sketches, one captioned Peter Bull/Pozzo, while the second sketch is most likely of Peter Woodthorpe as Estragon. A colored drawing of a tree for the Godot set, four mounted black and white photographs of the original London cast, and four color photographs of character portraits are also present. Finally, the collection contains correspondence, mostly business related, and some items related to Snow but not to Beckett’s play.
Peter Snow (1927-2008) was a painter, teacher, and theatre set and costume designer. He served as head of theatre design at the Slade School of Fine Art in London for nearly thirty years, and in addition to exhibiting his own art and forming and running a theatre company, he designed for many plays, operas, and the ballet.

Related Material


Additional Samuel Beckett related materials at the Ransom Center are in the Samuel Beckett Collection, the Carlton Lake Collection of Samuel Beckett, the Richard Seaver Collection of Samuel Beckett, the Deirdre Bair Collection of Samuel Beckett and Brian Coffey, and the Abraham Jacob Leventhal Collection. Small amounts of Beckett correspondence are located in a number of additional collections at the Ransom Center.

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