Timeline

The following chronology owes a debt to several sources, in particular James Knowlson's Damned to Fame (1996).

 

Life and Events

Working On

Publishes

1906

Born in Foxrock, County Dublin, on 13 April 1906 in the family house, Cooldrinagh.

 

 

1916

Easter Rebellion waged in Dublin. Beckett's family is safely away from the violence, and his father takes him and his brother to a hilltop where they can see the fires. That fall he enters Portora Royal School.

 

 

1923 - 1927

Attends Trinity College, Dublin, earning a B.A. in French and Italian.

 

 

1928

Takes teaching post at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, as Lectueur d'Anglais. Though not enthusiastic about a scholarly career, he meets James Joyce and enters the Parisian literary circle. Beckett befriends Joyce and assists him with the Work in Progress (later to become Finnegans Wake).

 

 

1929

 

 

 "Dante. . .Bruno.Vico. .Joyce", an essay for the Joyce symposium,Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress

"Assumption", his first published short story (intransition)

1930

 

Proust

Whoroscope

1931

 

 

Proust

1932

 

Dream of Fair to Middling Women

 

1933

Beckett's father dies 26 June. Depressed, Beckett travels to London and begins two years of psychotherapy with Dr. Wilfred Bion.

More Pricks Than Kicks

 

1934

 

 

More Pricks Than Kicks

1935

 

Murphy

Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates, cycle of 13 poems written 1931-35

1936 - 1937

Beckett travels around Germany, writing extensively in notebooks. When he returns to Ireland, he has a falling out with his mother and leaves his country permanently to return to Paris. Walking home one night in December, Beckett is stabbed and nearly killed by a "pimp." While recovering in the hospital, he is attended by an acquaintance, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, who will soon become his life companion.

 

 

1938

 

 

Murphy

1939

 

Murphy in French

 

1940

When German troops invade Paris, Beckett and Suzanne travel to Alcachon, not returning until November.

 

 

1941

Indignant about--among other atrocities--the anti-Semitic actions of the Nazi regime and encouraged by his friend Alfred Péron, Beckett joins the Gloria SMH cell of the French Resistance.

 

 

1942 - 1944

When warned that his Resistance cell has been betrayed, Beckett and Suzanne flee their apartment just before the Gestapo arrives. They hide out all across Paris, before finally settling in the country village of Roussillion, where Beckett picks up farm work in exchange for food.

Watt

 

1945

The Germans defeated, Beckett and Suzanne return to Paris. Shortly after, Beckett travels to Ireland to visit his mother, where he claims to have had an artistic revelation sitting in her room. As a foreigner, Beckett encounters unexpected difficulty returning to France and in order to ensure his re-entry, he volunteers for an Irish Red Cross job in St.-Lô. He resettles in Paris finally at the end of the year.

 

 

1946

 

The Nouvelles ("La fin", "L'expulsé", "Le calmant", and "Premier amour")

Mercier et Camier

 

1947

 

Eleutheria

Molloy

Murphy in French

1947 - 1948

 

Malone meurt

 

1948 - 1949

 

En attendant Godot

 

1949

 

 

"Three Dialogues"

1949 - 1950

 

L'innomable

Anthology of Mexican Poetry, compiled by Octavio Paz and translated by Beckett

 

1950

Beckett's mother, May, dies 25 August.

 

 

1950 - 1951

 

Textes pour rien

 

1951

 

 

Molloy

Malone meurt

1952

 

 

En attendant Godot

1953

Roger Blin's production of En attendant Godot opens 3 January in Paris' Théâtre de Babylone. It brings Beckett his first fame and first financial success.

Molloy in English

Watt

L'innommable

1954

Beckett's brother, Frank, dies 13 September.

 

 

1955

 

 

 

Nouvelles et textes pour rien(left)

Molloyin English

1955 - 1956

 

Fin de partie

 

1956

 

Malone meurt in English

All That Fall

Malone Dies

From an Abandoned Work

1957

First production of Fin de partie at The Royal Court Theatre in London. All That Fallbroadcast by the BBC Third Programme, 13 January.

L'innommable in English

Fin de partie

All That Fall

Tous ceux qui tombent

1958

Krapp's Last Tape performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 28 October.

Krapp's Last Tape

Krapp's Last Tape

Endgame

The Unnamable

Anthology of Mexican Poetry

1958 - 1960

 

 

Comment c'est

1959

Embers broadcast on BBC, 24 June

Embers

Embers

La dernière bande

Cendres

1960 - 1961

 

Happy Days

 

1961

Marries Suzanne in a secret civil ceremony in England, 25 March.

 

Happy Days

Comment c'est

1961 - 1962

 

Cascando

 

1962

 

 

Words and Music

1963

Spiel (Play) performed at the Ulmer Theater, Ulm-Doneau, 14 June.

Play

How It Is

Film

Oh les beaux jours

Cascando in English

Poems in English

1963 - 1965

 

All Strange Away

Imaginez morte imaginez

 

1964

Travels to New York for production of Film, starring silent film star Buster Keaton, his only visit to the United States.

 

Play

Comédie

How It Is

1965

Film first shown at the New York Film Festival.

Assez

Come and Go

Imagination morte imaginez, in French and English

1965 - 1970

 

Le dépeupleur

 

1966

 

Eh Joe

Dis Joe

Va et vient

Paroles et musique

Assez

Bing

1967

 

 

Eh Joe

Film

Come and Go

From an Abandoned Work

Poémes

Stories and Texts for Nothing

Enough

Ping

Watt in French

1968

 

 

Watt in French

L'issue

1969

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In Tunisia at the time, Beckett goes into hiding, sending Jérôme Lindon to receive the prize.

 

Sans

1970

 

 

Mercier et Camier

Premier amour

Lessnesss

Le dépeupleur

1971

 

 

The Lost Ones

1972

Not I plays at Lincoln Center in September

Not I

 

1973

 

 

Not I

1975

 

Footfalls

Footfalls and Pas Moi

1976

Footfalls performed at Royal Court Theatre in London.

 

Fizzles

That Time

Pour finir encore et autre foirades

1976

That Time performed at Royal Court Theatre in London, 20 May.

 

 

1977 - 1979

 

A Piece of Monologue

Company

A Piece of Monologue

1979

A Piece of Monologue performed in New York

 

 

1980

 

Ohio Impromptu

Rockaby

Company

1981

Ohio Impromptu (above) performed at Ohio State University for 75th birthday Symposium.

Rockabyperformed with Billie Whitelaw in Buffalo, New York.

 

Ohio Impromptu

Mal vu mal dit

Ill Seen Ill Said

Rockaby

1982

Quad broadcast in Germany by Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany. Catastropheperformed at Avignon Festival.

Catastrophe

 

1983

 

 

Worstward Ho

Catastrophe

1984

 

 

Quad

1986

Diagnosed with ephysema, and moved into Le Tiers Temps nursing home.

Stirrings Still

"What Is the Word", a poem and his final work

 

1988

 

 

Stirrings Still

1989

Suzanne dies 17 July, and Beckett dies 22 December.

 

Soubresauts

1992

 

 

Dream of Fair to Middling Women

1995

 

 

Eleutheria