Artist Bio

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, in 1932 and published a collection of stories, More Pricks Than Kicks, in 1934. His next novel, Murphy, was followed by his celebrated novel trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable). In 1947, he wrote his first play, Eleutheria, which he would not allow to be published during his lifetime. In 1948, he wrote Waiting for Godot. Its production in Paris in January 1953, by the director and actor Roger Blin (with whom Beckett would develop a lifelong friendship), brought the artist his first real public success both in and outside of France. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett’s playwriting continued with a series of masterpieces, including Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Happy Days. He was involved in various productions of his plays across Europe and in the United States, wrote his first radio plays and continued to write innovative fiction. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His last major work, the prose fiction Stirrings Still, was written in 1986. That same year, he was diagnosed with emphysema. His deteriorating health prevented him from writing, and he died on December 22, 1989.

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