Samuel Beckett (Playwright)

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born in Foxrock, County Dublin, on April 13, 1906. Beckett wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women in 1932. In Paris and out of money, he went back to Dublin and then moved temporarily to London, where he worked on much of his next novel, Murphy. His first French novel, Mercier et Camier, was written between 1947 and 1950. In this time, he also wrote his famous novel trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In 1947, he wrote his first play, Eleutheria, which he would not allow to be published during his lifetime. Between 1948 and 1949, he wrote Waiting for Godot. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett's playwriting continued with a series of masterpieces, including Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, and Happy Days. He involved himself in various productions of his plays across Europe and in the United States, wrote his first radio plays, and created remarkably innovative prose fiction, including the epic How It Is (1961) and the haunting The Lost Ones (1970). Worldwide appreciation of his work growing, he received the Nobel Prize in 1969. The 1970s were a less prolific period, though he managed some new projects, including television plays for the BBC, and continued to interest himself in productions of his theatrical works. In 1977 he began the autobiographical Company and in the early 1980s crafted more prose pieces including Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu. His last major work, the prose fiction Stirrings Still, was written in 1986.