It was in the year of 1928 that Thomas McGreeney, a long time friend of Beckett's, introduced him to James Joyce, a writer whose works such as Ulysses helped to inspire his own. Beckett and Thomas McGreeney met at the Ecole both being students working together as members of the Dublin United Arts Club and the Dublin Drama League. Beckett quoted McGreeney in an interview with James Knowlson as being, "a living Encyclopedia."(98) He was a born talker yet remained an even better listener. It is deduced that it was their love for painting and passion for music and theater that drew them close. So successful was their bond that McGreeney was Beckett's only true confidant till the end of the Second World War.
It was with McGreeney that Beckett, being older in age took to late evening
drinking, yet these escapades were only one side, he still maintained the same
work ethic continuing to work hard and deliberately. Another of Beckett's admirations
for the friendship between the two was McGreeney's acquaintances and friends.
McGreeney knew a great many people: Lennox Robinson, Stephen McKenna, George
Russell, and W.B. Yeats in Dublin; T.S. Elliot in London; James Stephens, Richard
Aldington, and James Joyce in his closer circle in Paris.
In the lifetime of Samuel Beckett to conclusively argue that a single friendship
shaped his destiny would be thought practically ridiculous in the sense that
Beckett shared many acquaintances of whom he has written about allusively in
many his works. To site for example Ethna McCarthy, a love of Beckett's, she
was the inspiration for the character of the "Alba." Yet irrefutably
there is in fact a single person who helped to point Beckett towards a life
as a writer. It was through the friendship of McGreeney that Beckett was introduced
and recommended enthusiastically to James Joyce.
Beckett had always wanted to meet Joyce as James Knowlson put it, "mainly
for his intense admiration for Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man, Ulysses, and some of his poems."(105) In the consideration of the
two both retained many like qualities. Both had degrees in French and Italian
and both had exceptional linguistic abilities. It is documented by James Knowlson
that both authors "shared a mutual preoccupation with religious imagery,
had a love of Schubert's lieder, and had a fondness for the films of Charlie
Chaplin."(105)
Beckett remarked to James Knowlson that he was overwhelmed with Joyce. "I
was introduced to him by Tom. He was very friendly immediately. I remember coming
back very exhausted to the Ecole Normale and as usual, the door was closed;
so I climbed over the railings. I remember that. Coming back from my first meeting
with Joyce. I remember walking back. And from then on we saw each other quite
often."(46) This quote serves as a link to the beginning of the friendship
between two great writers of the Twentieth century, Joyce and Beckett.
To remark on their friendship as one of business only would be far too harsh
and held untrue in the greatest sense. While according to his wife documented
by James Knowlson, "Joyce would have had God running errands for him, had
he come down to earth"(109) Beckett's use as an errant boy is rather insignificant
in the light of Joyce's fondness and confidence in his "keen intelligence."63.
It is best remarked by Beckett to point out their relationship, "There
wasn't a lot of conversation between us. I was a young man, very devoted to
him, and he liked me …I was very flattered when he dropped the "Mister."
Everybody was "Mister." There were no Christian names, no first names.
The nearest you would get to a friendly name was to drop the "Mister."
I was never Sam. I was always "Beckett" at the best."(57)
The two became companions for life. To be noted though is the age of Beckett
in comparison to Joyce. While Beckett was very intellectual, he was incline
to consider himself a very confident young man, he still at the same time retained
a great deal of vulnerability in the presence of Joyce. It was at the age of
twenty-two that that Beckett first met Joyce and it was in this time that he
took to Joyce as an apprentice would to a hero. Beckett even took to some of
the same manners and habits of Joyce according to James Knowlson such as, "wearing
shoes that were to narrow for him, drinking white wines, and holding his cigarette
in a certain way."(57)
Joyce lived a simple life. It was in Joyce, that Beckett found comfort unlike
any other. The life of Joyce was one of intense meditation and contemplation,
and so Beckett's life became in way a mirror. In the moments in which they were
alone, Joyce's influence upon the young author became the heaviest. Later in
life Beckett would speak of the time they spent alone, pointing to the long
silent walks they would engage in, and citing the moments of silence in which
they would sit in each other's company, Joyce sitting in contemplation of the
sorrowfulness of life and Beckett in contemplation of the pain and anguish with
living. It is through the works of Beckett that these moments are appeased.