Historical Figure
Samuel Beckett
1906–1989
Irish playwright and poet (1906–1989)
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Biography
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish playwright, poet, novelist, and literary critic. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical works feature bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic episodes of life, coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense. Beckett is widely regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century, credited with transforming modern theatre. As a major figure of Irish literature, he is best known for his tragicomedy play Waiting for Godot (1953). For his foundational contribution to both literature and theatre, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation."
In Their Own Words (5)
Personally of course I regret everything. Not a word, not a deed, not a thought, not a need, not a grief, not a joy, not a girl, not a boy, not a doubt, not a trust, not a scorn, not a lust, not a hope, not a fear, not a smile, not a tear, not a name, not a face, no time, no place, that I do not regret, exceedingly. An ordure, from beginning to end.
Part I, p. 37 , 1943
But he had turned, little by little, a disturbance into words, he had made a pillow of old words, for his head.
Part II, p. 117 , 1943
Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.
"Samuel Beckett Talks About Beckett", Vogue Magazine, 1969 , 1969
If by Godot I had meant God I would have said God, and not Godot.
As quoted in The Essential Samuel Beckett: An Illustrated Biography, by Enoch Brater (revised edition, 2003) , p. 75 , 2003
Bid us sigh on from day to day,And wish and wish the soul away,Till youth and genial years are flown,And all the life of life is gone.
Addenda, p. 248 , 1943
Timeline
The story of Samuel Beckett, told in moments.
Stabbed in the chest on a Paris street by a pimp named Prudent. Joyce arranged a private hospital room for him. When Beckett later asked his attacker why he'd done it, the man replied: "I do not know, sir." This answer fascinated Beckett for years.
Joined the French Resistance cell Gloria SMH after the Nazi occupation of Paris. Gathered intelligence and translated documents. When the cell was betrayed in 1942, he and his partner Suzanne fled to the countryside. He later called his Resistance work "boy scout stuff."
Waiting for Godot premiered in Paris. Two tramps wait for someone who never comes. Audiences were baffled and electrified. It changed theater permanently. He'd written it in French and then translated it to English himself.
Won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Called it a "catastrophe." Gave away the prize money. His wife heard the news on the radio and said "Quelle catastrophe."
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