Antigone (Sophocles play)
Antigone ( ; ) is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC.
The Antiphon
Barnes started writing the play in the early 1950s and, unlike her other major works, many of the early manuscript drafts still exist. They can be consulted in her archives at The University of Maryland. In 1954, once Barnes had completed writing the play, she sent it to T. S. Eliot at Faber & Faber, who had previously published "Nightwood" and with whom she had developed a strong friendship. Eliot was initially very uncertain of the play's merits, indeed in a letter responding to it he explained that he had struggled to fully comprehend it. Nonetheless, he enlisted the poet and critic Edwin Muir to read the manuscript, who claimed the play "a work of genius and utterly absurd." Muir did, however, suggest some editorial changes, especially to the first act, and Barnes produced a new draft of the play. In November 1956, with Muir and Eliot's recommendation, Faber & Faber agreed to publish the play and Eliot agreed to write the preface for it, as he had done for Nightwood. However, the draft preface he sent to Barnes ahead of the publication described the play as quixotic and Barnes as a writer with too much genius and not enough talent. Barnes was hurt and Eliot withdrew the preface, but their friendship had been soured.