Samuel Beckett is a challenging giant of 20th century literature, and Beckett studies increasingly focus on the interwar period for evidence of Beckett's subsequent embrace of an 'art of failure'. This monograph is based on close analysis of the newly-released notebooks and transcriptions compiled by Beckett from 1929-1940, which shed important and unique insight into Beckett's working methods, original sources and literary development. In particular they reveal the central paradox that Beckett's professions of 'ignorance and impotence' were founded upon extensive erudition and academic practices reflecting his interests in philosophy and psychology. This is the first book to offer an extended study of how recent archival discoveries can contribute to the fundamental transformation of Beckett's truly revolutionary literature.