Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett (Samuel Barclay Beckett) was born on April 13th, 1906. Samuel passed away December 22nd, 1989 at 83 years old. Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Dublin, Ireland. Beckett attended Trinity College Dublin where he received a bachelor's degree.

Samuel Beckett was an existentialist writer of short stories, novels, plays, and poems. His theatrical and literary work features tragicomic, bleak, and impersonal experiences of life, which is often coupled with nonsense and black comedy.

His work got increasingly minimalist while his career continued to progress, involving much more linguistic and aesthetic experimentation, with some techniques of stream of consciousness repetition and self-references. Samuel is considered one of the final modernist authors, and is a key figure in what Martin Esslin once called Theatre of the Absurd.

Samuel published his first work in 1929, a critical essay called “Dante..Bruno. Vico. Joyce”. It defends Joyce’s method and work, largely from allegations of wanton dimness and obscurity.

During his time as English lecturer at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, he introduced to James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy. It had a profound effect on the young man. Samuel ended up assisting Joyce in numerous ways, one of which was helping provide research for what would become Finnegan’s Wake.

He won a tiny literary prize for “Whoroscope”, a hastily composed poem that draws on this Rene Descartes biography that Beckett was reading when he was encouraged to submit.

For Samuel, the 1930s was a decade of artistic exploration. He began taking a serious interest in art history, frequenting Ireland’s National Gallery, studying a range of movements (primarily the Dutch Golden Age) and painters, as well as looking at some private collections.

Samuel was a resident of Paris, France for much of his adult life, and wrote in both English and French. During World War II, he was a member of the French Resistance group known as Gloria SMH (Reseau Gloria) and received the Croix de Guerre.

In 1969, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing, in which new forms for the novel and drama, in the destitution of modern man acquires elevation.

Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts has become one of the most enigmatic and important plays of the past 50 years and is a cornerstone of 20th century drama.

The story revolves around these two apparently homeless men that are waiting for something or somebody called Godot. Estragon and Vladimir wait close to this tree, inhabiting this drama which spun out of their own consciousness. The result is this comical wordplay of nonsense, poetry, and dreamscapes, which has long been interpreted as man’s inexhaustible quest to find meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered this expressionistic minimalism which captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play continues to be one of the beautiful and magical allegories of our time.

Samuel Beckett: Lists & Other Mentions

• Murphy was a The Guardian: 100 Best Novels Written in English Selection in 2015 and a The Guardian: 100 Greatest Novels of All Time Selection in 2015.
• Malone Dies was a The Guardian: 100 Greatest Novels of All Time Selection in 2003.
• Watt was a National Book Foundation: 100 Life-Changing Books Selection in 2006.
• Waiting for Godot has made several lists including:
  1. The Guardian: 50 Books That Defined Their Era Selection in 2011.
  2. Blackwell's: Five Foot Bookshelf Selection in 2021.
  3. Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Selection in 2007.
• Collected Shorter Plays was a The Independent: Books of the Decade (1980s) Selection in 1989.
• Stirrings Still was a The Independent: Books of the Decade (1980s) Selection in 1989.

Related Authors

Fans of Samuel Beckett also enjoy these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale Series.
3. Neil Gaiman, author of the American Gods Series.
4. Terry Pratchett, author of: Good Omens.
5. William Shakespeare, author of the Tragedy Plays.

Samuel Beckett: F.A.Q