Samuel+Beckett

=Samuel Beckett=

Paris - 14th Arrondissement
Irish novelist and poet, Samuel Beckett, was born in Dublin, Ireland on April 13th, 1906. His mother was a nurse and his father worked in construction business. Beckett Attended Earlsfort House School until he turned 14, when he was transferred to Portora Royal School. In 1927, he earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Trinity College where he was studying Romance Languages. In his younger years he would experience periods of severe depression which would keep him in bed till the afternoon. He regarded himself as having “little talent for happiness” during his young years. This period had a great influence on his future writings.

All throughout 1931 he traveled through France and Germany and wrote endless poems and along the way met individuals who inspired out-of-the-box characters in later works. Six years after his journey, he settled down in Paris and was shortly after stabbed by a pimp because he refused him solicitations. While in the hospital he met a woman named Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnuil, a pianist who lived in Paris. They became companions and eventually got married in 1961. During World War II, Beckett was able to stay in Paris where he helped fight in the resistance until 1942 when his group was arrested. However, Suzanne and Beckett were able to escape, and fled to safe zone until the war ended. When the war ended, Beckett was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery during the resistance. Thereafter, he started his rise in the journalism industry. In just five years he had written seven novels, two books of short stories, and one book of criticism.

Samuel wrote in both English and French with a unique style of writing referred to as “Theater of the Absurd,” which focuses on human despair and the will to survive. The 1960’s was a time of change for him, he found great success in his plays all across the world. All through the 1970’s and 1980’s he dedicated himself to his writing by moving to a small secluded house outside of Paris to avoid publicity. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but declined accepting it publicly to avoid giving a speech. After that, until the rest of his life he worked with other artists, scholars, and admirers to discuss his work. The late 1980’s his health started to fail and he started to develop severe health problems and was then put into a small nursing home along with his wife. July of 1989 his wife died and a few months later, on December 22nd, he followed, dying of respiratory problems.