Sir, – In his excellent article “Walking in Samuel Beckett’s footsteps” (Books, September 13th), Alan Gilsenan refers to the photograph of me and my son on the snow-clad Dublin mountains with the caption “Father and Son on a road to nowhere”.
This poignant photograph, taken by David Davison, has been used to illustrate many essays, book covers and theatre catalogues.
However, when I first showed it to Beckett in Paris, he asked why I had thought the quotation from Worstward Ho was that of a “father and son”.
Realising that I had misinterpreted his text, I suggested that the photograph should not be used in the book, but Beckett had been so overwhelmed by the loneliness and isolation it exuded that he insisted on its inclusion.
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This is another example of Beckett’s way of delving into the memory of place, and occasionally person, to fire creative thought rather than worrying about the accuracy of detail underlying the initiating process. – Yours, etc,
EOIN O’BRIEN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
