Fizzles

In 1972, Vera Lindsay, who was working as an editor at Petersburg Press,^[7] conceived of a collaboration of Beckett with Jasper Johns. In 1973, Johns met Beckett in Paris, where they agreed to work together on a version of Fizzles, with the understanding that Beckett would translate his French texts into English.^[8] Because Beckett gave Johns free rein to design the book, he decided to include only five fizzles, but in both languages. In order of appearance, Johns chose fizzles: 2, 5, 1, 6, and 4.^[9]

In Paris, Johns made etchings for the book, with the aid of Aldo Crommelynck. They used a variety of intaglio techniques, to create 33 images. In addition, end papers, designed by Johns, were printed as four-color lithographs by William Law at Petersburg Press. Johns took much of the imagery from his painting Untitled 1972,^[10] but he also created numerals that introduce the fizzles and a "table of contents", which incorporates stenciled letters from his repertoire.^[11] In 1976, Petersburg Press published the resulting artist's book under the title Foirades/Fizzles, in an edition of 250 copies, signed by both creators.^[11]

In 1977, shortly after it was published, the book was exhibited, from October 11 to November 20, at the Whitney Museum of American Art.^[11] Since then it has appeared in numerous shows,^[12] including the landmark Museum of Modern Art exhibit: A Century of Artists’ Books, which ran from October 23, 1994 to January 24, 1995.^[13] The exhibit catalog includes an essay, Artists’ Books in the Modern Era 1870–2000, whose authors, Johnson and Stein, referring to Foirades/Fizzles, state:

This cerebral volume that provokes more questions than it answers is considered one of the greatest artist's books of the second half of the twentieth century.^[14]

The fizzles have had a significant impact, not only on literature, but also on music and the visual and performing arts. They have been the subject of scholarly works,^[15] and academic theses.^[16] Fizzles has inspired theatrical performances.^[17] So has the artist's book,^[18] which has also inspired modern paintings.^[19]

In 1993, the English composer and musician Barry Guy released an interpretation titled "Five Fizzles (For S.B.)" on the eponymous CD Fizzles (Maya Recordings), playing chamber bass and double bass.^[20] This release was followed by Guy's 2014 live EP Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett (NoBusiness Records).^[21]

On June 15, 2012, Spitalfields Music presented the world premier of Old Earth.^[22] Sets for this production were designed by Lucy Wilkinson,^[23] it was directed by Jonathan Holmes, and Beckett's words were spoken by Alan Howard. The score was written by Alec Roth^[24] and performed by The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers.