Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was an Irish playwright and author whose works have had a lasting influence and have helped redefine modernism. A protege of James Joyce, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Fast Facts

Born: April 13, 1906
Died: December 22, 1989
Origin: Dublin, Ireland
Literary Movement: Modernism, Theater of the Absurd
Most famous works were originally published in French
His tombstone reads: "any colour, so long as it's grey."
Buried in the exclusive "Montparnasse" cemetery Paris, France
First novel Dream of Fair to Middling Women was rejected in 1932 by publishers

Career

Samuel Beckett became a teacher at Campbell College before taking a job as a lecturer in Paris. Here he met author James Joyce and worked with him for a while before publishing his own book in 1929. He returned to his own college and began teaching again. In 1931 he terminated his teaching career and began traveling. Beckett continued writing while he traveled and wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women in 1932. Finally settling down in Paris, he worked for the French Resistance as a courier. He continued to write all through the war and the many years that led up to his death. His final work was a poem he created in the nursing home, "What is the Word."

Notable Works

Quotes

"All I know is what the words know, and dead things, and that makes a handsome little sum, with a beginning and a middle and an end, as in the well-built phrase and the long sonata of the dead." - Samuel Beckett

"Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss." - Samuel Beckett

"No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found." - Samuel Beckett

Categories

Entertainment | Literature | Theater | Screenwriters and Playwrights | Authors and Writers

| View Note History

The Mahalo Top 7

Wikipedia: Samuel Beckett
The Samuel Beckett On-Line Resources and Links Pages
The Modern Word: Apmonia: A Site for Samuel Beckett
The University of Texas at Austin: Samuel Beckett Centenary Exhibition
NPR: Beckett's Centenary: Revisiting a Legacy (2006)
SparkNotes: Samuel Beckett Study Guides
YouTube Video: Scene from Waiting for Godot (Time: 05:10)

Samuel Beckett Works Online

Algunas Obras De Beckett: Selected works online.
The Samuel Beckett On-Line Resources and Links Pages: Samuel Beckett On-line Texts
Google Books: I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Selection from Samuel Beckett's Work
Guardian Unlimited: "Knowing Me, Knowing You" Online Text
Drama21c.net: Play Online Text
BradColbourne.com: "A Piece of Monologue" Online Text
Freidrich Alexander University: "What Is The Word" Online Text

Samuel Beckett Video and Audio

YouTube & Google Video Search: Samuel Beckett
YouTube: Film by Samuel Beckett Part 1 (Time 05:49)
YouTube: "Play" by Samuel Beckett Part 1 (Time: 7:10)
UbuWeb: Samuel Beckett Audio Files
Reclaim the Sea: Watt by Samuel Beckett Audio Readings

Samuel Beckett Literary Criticism

California State University: "Samuel Beckett's Postmodern Fictions" (1994)
The New York Review of Books: "Beckett: Still Stirring" (2006)
Guardian Unlimited: "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (2003)
The Internet Public Library: Samuel Beckett Criticism
The Paris Review: "Exorcising Beckett" (1987)

Samuel Beckett Study Guides

eNotes: Samuel Beckett Study Guides
SparkNotes: Samuel Beckett Study Guides
PinkMonkey.com: Waiting for Godot Study Guide
BookRags: Samuel Beckett Study Guides

Samuel Beckett Background and Profiles

Nobelprize.org: Samuel Beckett Biography and Bibliography
TIME: Samuel Beckett Biography (2006)
Poetry Foundation: Samuel Beckett Profile
Guardian Unlimited: Samuel Beckett Profile
New York Times: "Samuel Beckett Is Dead at 83; His 'Godot' Changed Theater" (1989)

Samuel Beckett Quotations

Wikiquote: Samuel Beckett
The Modern Word: Samuel Beckett Quotes
BrainyQuote: Samuel Beckett Quotes
ThinkExist: Samuel Beckett Quotes

Samuel Beckett News and Articles

The New Yorker: "Sam I Am" (2006)
New York Times: "Beckett, Master of the Bleak, Gets a Birthday Bash in Dublin" (2006)
New York Times: "An Outsider in His Own Life" (1997)
Boston Globe: "My Friend, Samuel Beckett" by Israel Horovitz (1989)
The Hapless Dilettante News: Samuel Beckett Interviews

Samuel Beckett Fan Sites, Blogs, and Message Boards

Fan Site: The Samuel Beckett Endpage
The Modern Word: Apomonia: A Site for Samuel Beckett
The Samuel Beckett On-Line Resources and Links Pages
Google Blog Search: Samuel Beckett
Western Canon Great Books Forums: Samuel Beckett Forum

Samuel Beckett Books and Merchandise

Amazon.com: Books by Samuel Beckett | Books about Samuel Beckett | DVDs
Half.com: Used and New Samuel Beckett Books
Tattered Cover: Samuel Beckett Books
eBay: Samuel Beckett Merchandise
CSL CartoonStock: Samuel Beckett Gifts
CafePress.com: Samuel Beckett T-Shirts and Gifts

Samuel Beckett Personal Timeline

1906: Born
1927: B.A. Trinity College, Dublin.
1928-29: English reader at École Normale Supérieure, Paris
1930: French reader at Trinity College, Dublin
1945: Began writing in French
1989: Died in Paris

Samuel Beckett Publications Timeline

1951: Molloy
1951: Malone Dies
1952: Waiting for Godot
1953: Murphy
1953: The Unnamable
1955: Stories and Texts for Nothing
1957: Endgame followed by Act without Words I
1960: Krapp's Last Tape
1961: How It Is
1963: Happy Days
1966: Play followed by Act without Words II
1969: Watt
1972: "The Lost Ones"
1973: "First Love"
1974: Mercier and Camier
1976: "For to End Yet Again and Other Fizzles"
1980: "Company"
1982: Three Occasional Pieces
1982: "Ill Seen, Ill Said"
1983: "Worstward Ho"
1989: Nohow On

Related Pages on Mahalo

James Joyce | Eugene Ionesco | Harold Pinter | Tom Stoppard | Philip Glass | Nobel Prize | Modernism | Waiting for Godot | Death of a Salesman | Anton Chekhov | The Seagull

This page was created by Lynn R, a Part Time Guide in the Mahalo Greenhouse (see the original), and curated by Jennifer.
If you'd like to help us create the best spam free search results on the Internet, apply to be a Part Time Guide!