Born on April 13, 1906 in Cooldrinagh

Youngest of two children

Enrolled at Trinity College in October of 1923

In December 1927 earned his Bachelor's Degree from Trinity

Taught French at Campbell College in 1928

Gained Joyce as an assistant, whom he greatly enjoyed working with

Grew to like Lucia, Joyce's daughter

Wrote Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot, Happy Days, and Endgame during the 50s and 60s

These plays jump started his career

Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969 in Literature

He did not attend the ceremony because he did not like the attention

 

Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett: A Biography. Simon and Schuster, 1990.

Beckett is most often aligned with the avant-garde theatre and Theatre of the Absurd. However, he himself was unhappy to adopt any kind of genre. He did not want a specific label to describe his own work. He is more accurately developing a type of existential noir theatre. His work is highly developed through experimentation. For example, he wrote a great number of his plays in French and translated them back into English. He was quite suspicious of language--of the limitations of expression through language. Beckett is the absolute poster child for directorial authority. He was demanding, insisted that his work adhere to the script in performance. Efforts by other directors to experiment with Beckett's stage direction were quickly, unceremoniously shut down. He is quite renowned for placing his actors into various forms of confinement on stage. It is safe to say that Samuel Beckett was a true individual with his creative style, known as surrealism.
 

Class Notes form The Norton Anthology of Drama