A curious literary underworld of American expatriates congregated in postwar Paris," including the two black novelists Richard Wright and James Baldwin - who, incidentally, seem for most of the time to have got on each other's nerves. William Burroughs was another key figure, but this patch of literary history is not confined to Americans alone. There is a good deal about Beckett and the first performance of Waiting for Godot about Maurice Girodias and the Olympia Press, about the budding Theatre of the Absurd. The more fortunate and successful people involved eventually climbed to fame from this world of fringe publishing, fringe theatre, and (usually short-lived) literary magazines; others either sank without trace, or went back quietly to their fathers businesses.