Notes to pp. 357–359 575157 Adorno to Horkheimer, 17 April 1958, Horkheimer–Pollock Archive,
Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main.
158 Horkheimer, Späne: Notizen über Gespräche mit Max Horkheimer, GS,
vol. 14, p. 338f.
159 There were five (documented) meetings in all between Adorno and
Beckett: in addition to November 1958 in Paris, meetings took place in
February 1961 in Frankfurt, September 1967 in Berlin (in the Savoy Hotel
in the Fasanenstraße), and in January 1968, once again in Paris. The
Theodor W. Adorno Archive contains a letter from Adorno to Beckett,
dated 1 March 1965, in which he announces his arrival in Paris and sug-
gests a meeting in the Hotel Port Royal. Elizabeth Lenk insists that this
meeting took place. ‘Adorno forgot everything around him when Beckett
entered the room. “Did you notice?”, he whispered to me in the Hotel
Port Royal, “He took his spectacles off for my sake?”’ (Adorno and
Lenk, Briefwechsel 1962–1969, pp. 55 and 125).
160 Rolf Tiedemann, ‘Gegen den Trug der Frage nach dem Sinn’, p. 23.
161 See James Knowlson, Samuel Beckett, p. 480ff.
162 Rolf Tiedemann has documented these notes in a highly illuminating
essay. A comparison between them and the printed essay shows clearly
the different stages in the development of Adorno’s thinking. What is
striking is that he begins by noting ideas simply as they come to him.
These notes then form the foundation from which he dictates the first
draft. Once this had been typed out, it was subjected to a number of
thorough revisions. See Tiedemann, ‘Gegen den Trug der Frage nach dem
Sinn’, p. 26ff.
163 There were four volumes of the Notes to Literature. The second volume to
which the author refers here is Part II of vol. 1 of the English edition
[trans.].
164 See Knowlson, Samuel Beckett, p. 601; Adorno, ‘Trying to Understand
Endgame’, Notes to Literature, vol. 1, p. 267.
165 Adorno was well aware that Beckett had reservations not just about his
interpretation of his work, but about all interpretations. Thus in Novem-
ber 1964 he wrote to Elisabeth Lenk, who intended to write a dissertation
on surrealism under his supervision: ‘Beckett was someone who embod-
ied a truly indescribably advanced consciousness and at the same time he
strictly rejected every interpretation of his works, including mine. In this
respect he seems quite exemplary.’ – ‘Exemplary’ of the fact that it was
not possible ‘simply to pump ideas into the works and then to imagine
that this was their substantial meaning’ (Adorno and Lenk, Briefwechsel,
p. 39).
166 Adorno and Mann, Briefwechsel, pp. 128 and 141.
167 Adorno, ‘Trying to Understand Endgame’, Notes to Literature, vol. 1,
p. 241.
168 Ibid., p. 248.
169 Ibid., p. 244.
170 Ibid., p. 250.
171 Ibid., p. 249.
172 Ibid.
173 Ibid., p. 250; see also ‘Amorbach’, GS vol. 10.1, p. 305.
174 Samuel Beckett, The Beckett Trilogy, p. 381.