Fizzles

Fizzles

Cover of Grove's 1977 English paperback version
Author	Samuel Beckett
Publisher	Grove Press
Publication date	1977
ISBN

The "fizzles" are eight short prose pieces written by Samuel Beckett:

Some fizzles are unnamed and are identified by their numbers or first few words, which appear above in brackets.

Except for Still, which he wrote in English (1972), Beckett wrote the rest in French (1960) and translated them into English later. Hardback (1976) and paperback (1977) English versions were published by Grove Press. The fizzles are also included in Grove's collection The Complete Short Prose 1929-1989. In 1976, a French version, Pour finir encore et autres foirades, was published by Editions de Minuit and another English version by Calder Publications. Because Beckett felt that the order of presentation was unimportant, each of the three publishers adopted a different one. However, the order chosen by Grove Press, in which they appear above, has become standard.

In 1972, Vera Lindsay, who was working as an editor at Petersburg Press, 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. 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.

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, but he also created numerals that introduce the fizzles and a "table of contents", which incorporates stenciled letters from his repertoire. 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.

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