20th century Irish novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Dublin, Ireland on April 13, 1906.
He attended Portora Royal School, the same school attended by Oscar Wilde. Later he received his Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in 1927.
In his youth he would periodically experience severe depression which later influenced his writing.
In 1928 Beckett moved to Paris. In Paris he met James Joyce and became his student.
In 1931 , he journeyed through Britain, France and Germany. he wrote poems and stories whilst he traveled.
He managed to get by supporting his living expenses with odd jobs here and there.
In 1937, Samuel Beckett settled in Paris. It was on the streets of Paris where he suffered a non fatal stabbing at the hands of a pimp. He met Suzanne Dumesnil, when she helped him to hospital after the street stabbing. They would later marry.
His comic novel Murphy was published in 1938.
During world war two he fought in the resistance movement until 1942 when members of his group were arrested by the Gestapo. He narrowly escaped and both he and Suzanne fled to the unoccupied zone until the end of the war. Samuel Beckett was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery during his time in the French resistance.
In 1947, he returned to Paris, where within two years he wrote his trilogy of novels. Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable, and the play Waiting for Godot. Godot had its first production in 1953, and its success made the reclusive Beckett an international figure.
Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, but shunned the presentation ceremony. He died in Paris on December 22, 1989, in a hospital of respiratory problems just months after his wife.