Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906. Educated at Trinty College he moved to France and became a lecturer in English in Paris. In 1930 he published a volume of verse, Whoroscope (1930). This was followed by a collection of short-stories, More Pricks than Kicks (1934) and a novel, Murphy (1930).

Success came to Beckett after the Second World War. This included the trilogy of novels, Molly (1951), Malone Meurt (1951) and L'Innommable (1953).

A leading exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd, Beckett wrote the plays Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), All That Fall (1957), Krapp's Last Tape (1958), Happy Days (1961), Play (1963) and Come and Go (1966). Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Beckett's later plays included Breath (1970), Not I (1972) and Footfalls (1976). Samuel Beckett died in 1989.