Beckett, Samuel Barclay, 1906-1989

Variant names
Dates:
Birth 1906-04-13
Death 1989-12-22
German, French, English

Biographical notes:

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born on Good Friday, April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, Ireland, near Dublin. He studied modern languages at Trinity College in Dublin and graduated in 1927. The following year, Beckett went to Paris, where he quickly became acquainted with a group of avant-garde artists, including James Joyce. There, Beckett taught English at the École Normale Superieure in Paris for two years before returning to Trinity College to teach French in 1930. He left Trinity College after one year to travel through Europe. Beckett settled in Paris, France in 1937, and lived there for most of the rest of his life.

As a poet, Beckett made his debut in 1930 with “Whoroscope,” followed by a collection of essays, Proust (1931), and one of his short stories, "More Pricks than Kicks" (1934). His career as a novelist began in 1938 with the publication of Murphy. During World War II, Beckett joined the French Resistance. He was forced to flee from Paris to unoccupied France in 1942 because of the threat of arrest by the German Gestapo.

After the war, Beckett wrote the trilogy of novels: Molloy (1951), Malone Meurt (1951), L’Innommable (1953). He also wrote plays during this period, including Eleutheria and Waiting for Godot. In the succeeding years Beckett avoided the limelight and dedicated his life to his work, which was continuously published by Grove Press in America during his lifetime. Beckett died in Paris on December 22, 1989.

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Subjects:

  • Theater
  • Artists' books
  • Authors and the theater
  • Authors, French
  • Authors, Irish
  • Drama
  • English drama
  • Irish drama
  • Dramatists
  • Dramatists, Irish
  • Expressionism (Art)
  • French literature
  • Irish literature
  • Literary agents
  • New novel (Literary movement)
  • Playwright, Irish
  • Playwriting
  • Theater of the absurd
  • Theatrical producers and directors

Occupations:

  • Authors, Irish
  • Dramatists
  • Dramatists, Irish

Places:

  • Paris, A8, FR
  • Dublin, L, IE
  • Belfast, NIR, GB

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