Short Takes : College Buys Beckett Collection

NEWTON, Mass. —  Boston College has purchased a collection of about 300 books, manuscripts and articles by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett.

“It’s probably one of the finest collections of Beckett materials assembled in private hands,” said Robert K. O’Neill, librarian of Boston College’s John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections.

O’Neill would not say today how much the university paid George Minkoff, a rare book dealer, for the collection. The collection was part of the estate of Beckett’s friends, Calvin and Joann Israel of New York.

Beckett, who died last year, is best known for his 1952 play, “Waiting for Godot.”