Samuel Beckett
What failed
A story commissioned by his own publisher was rejected as a nightmare. His first collection was banned in Ireland. Murphy went round London and New York for eighteen months collecting refusals, and when it finally appeared in March 1938 it sold 568 copies that year, then 23, then 20, then seven in 1941.
What happened next
He kept writing for another fifteen years, in a second language, largely unread. Waiting for Godot opened in a small Paris theatre in January 1953, when he was forty-six. The Nobel followed in 1969.
The point
The number usually given for Murphy is forty rejections, and the University of Reading, which holds the manuscript, gives that figure. The list in Beckett's own hand is shorter: twelve houses on f.37 of the Whoroscope notebook, eleven in blue pencil and Faber and Faber added later in ordinary pencil. It records only the submissions he made himself, and it does not include Routledge, who published the book in 1938.
The sequence
3 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1933
His own publisher rejects a story it had commissioned.
- 1934
More Pricks Than Kicks is banned in Ireland.
- 1936-1937
He writes the rejections down himself, in a notebook now in the Beckett archive at Reading.
- 1937
Eleven names are in blue pencil. Faber and Faber is added later, in ordinary pencil.
- 1937
In December Routledge accepts Murphy, on the recommendation of Jack Yeats.
- 1953
En attendant Godot opens at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris. He is forty-six.
- 1969
The Nobel Prize in Literature.
Sources
- Marginalia: Samuel Beckett's notebook and failed novel (Misc Magazine)
writes the heading, 'Murphy turned down by:' followed by the names of twelve publishing houses
- The Murphy manuscript (Samuel Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading)
Completion of Beckett's novel was followed by 40 rejections from publishers before Routledge eventually published the book in 1938.
- Whoroscope notebook, catalogue record (University of Reading Special Collections)
There follow the names of twelve publishing houses who had rejected the manuscript as sent by Beckett. Eleven are in blue pencil and a single later addition – Faber and Faber – in ordinary pencil. The list, on f.37 of the notebook, includes most of the major London publishing houses but not the eventual publishers of Murphy, Routledge.
- The 100 best novels: No 61 – Murphy by Samuel Beckett (1938) (Robert McCrum, The Guardian)
Routledge records show 568 copies sold in 1938, 23 in 1939, 20 in 1940 and 7 in 1941.
- Beckett's Waiting for Godot premieres in Paris (HISTORY)
"Godot" opened in Paris at a small Left Bank theater called the Théâtre de Babylone on January 5, 1953.
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Related failures
Others in writing, and nearby.
Theodor Seuss Geisel
Children's author
Rejected somewhere between 20 and 43 times. He never gave a consistent count.
2 documented failures
J.K. Rowling
Novelist
Turned down by more or less every major publisher in Britain, over about a year, while on state benefits.
4 documented failures
Agatha Christie
Novelist
Told her voice would never be strong enough for opera. Her first novel was never published at all.
5 documented failures
George Orwell
Novelist and essayist
T. S. Eliot rejected him twice, twelve years apart. The second book was Animal Farm.
9 documented failures