Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April, 1906 – 22 December, 1989) was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work is stark and fundamentally minimalist. As a follower of James Joyce, Beckett is considered by many one of the last modernists; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is considered one of the first postmodernists. He is also considered one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called "Theatre of the Absurd". He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". Beckett was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. The Beckett family (originally Becquet) were rumoured to be of Huguenot stock and to have moved to Ireland from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, though this theory has been criticised as unlikely. The Becketts were members of the Church of Ireland. The family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a...