Ping: Correspondence: Letter to Sarah Skidmere from Judith Schmidt

In 1967, while living in Tokyo, I read a short story by Samuel Beckett, "Ping", published in the English magazine, Encounter. I was fascinated by this text, and decided immediately that I wanted to make it the basis of an inter-media work. I wrote to Encounter that referred me, in turn, to Beckett's American publisher, Grove Press. The obtaining of rights for the use of Beckett's publications was complicated by a very committed and problematic French Publisher, Les Éditions de Minuit. As it happened, however, Grove Press allowed me to write directly to Beckett for permission, permission which he granted in a postcard sent to me. As my original ideas about how the work would proceed altered over time, various difficulties arose as to whether I had exceeded my permissions or not, and, if so, what should be done about this. Further complexity was added when the score was published, first , informally, as a Newsletter distributed widely by The Institute of Current World Affairs (the organization that was supporting Karen and me in Japan), and later in the magazine, SOURCE, edited by then U.C. Davis Professor Larry Austin, and his collaborator Stanley Lunetta.

• December 24, 1968

• Reynolds, Roger, 1934-

Based on: Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989. Ping

Letter of permission from Grove Press to the secretary of The Institute of Current World Affairs which had printed the text to Ping in one of Reynolds' monthly "newsletters", distributed by ICWA to its membership.

• Correspondence

• Grove Press

• Reynolds, Roger, 1934- -- Correspondence

• Copyright
• Legal correspondence
• Multimedia works

• text

• English

Shared Shelf: 3975616

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• Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress

Film, Audio, Video and Digital Art

Performing Arts (including Performance Art)

UC San Diego Library, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0175 (https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/contact)

• Reynolds, Roger, 1934-

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2021-09-29