SAMUEL
BECKETT CHRONOLOGY
1902:
Mary Roe "May" Beckett (1871-1950) gives birth to her first son,
Frank Edward Beckett, in Cooldrinagh on July 26, some two months after the
parents moved into their new Foxrock home.
1906: May gives birth to her second son, Samuel Barclay Beckett (SB),
also at home in Cooldrinagh on April 13, Good Friday. The official birth
certificate, however, lists 13 May as the date of birth, an error that has
confused more than one of SB's early biographers.
1911-1915: SB attends a small, private kindergarten school run by two
German sisters, Misses Ida and Pauline Elsner in Leopardstown. Shortly
thereafter the Beckett brothers leave the Misses Elsners' Academy to attend a
larger school called Earlsfort House in Dublin, not far from the Harcourt
Street station.
1916: Between April 24 and 29, the Easter Rising occurs in Dublin, an
abortive (though profoundly momentous) attempt by the Irish Volunteers and the
Irish Citizen Army to establish the Provisional Government of the Irish
Republic. The Becketts are safely sequestered from any violence in the
affluent, Protestant village of Foxrock, but the "Troubles" continue
as the Anglo-Irish war (1919-21) is followed by the Irish Civil war (1921-2).
SB's father takes his sons, Frank and Samuel, to a hilltop where they can see
the fires in neighboring Dublin. The image will stay with SB his entire
life.
1920: Begins attending Portora Royal School, as did Oscar Wilde, in
Enniskillen in the Northern county of Fermanagh. For the 1921 school year
SB discovered that he now attended school in a foreign country, Northern
Ireland, U. K.
1923: Enters Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) as an undergraduate to study
for an Arts degree. Soon meets Thomas Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Modern
Languages, who is to have a lasting impact on SB, perhaps most notably
developing SB's interest in contemporary French literature and by encouraging
him to write creatively. SB would satirize his mentor as the Polar Bear
in his first extended piece of fiction, Dream of Fair to Middling Women,
a novel he struggled with through 1931-2, offered it to a series of publishers
unsuccessfully, and then suppressed until after his death. It was finally
published in 1995. A second important lecturer was Bianca Esposito, who
(along with Walter Starkie) teaches him Italian and inaugurates his lifelong
passion for Dante. He would take private lessons from Signorina Esposito
as well. Those lessons at 21 Ely Place were then caricatured in the short
story "Dante and the Lobster." SB retained lifelong affection
for Dante, however, evident by the fact that his student copy of The Devine
Comedy would be at his bedside as he died in December of 1989. Soon
after he arrives at TCD, SB falls in love, for the first time, with Ethna
MacCarthy, a charming, experienced, mature young woman who inspires two of his
poems, "Alba" and "Yoke of Liberty," appears as a fleeting
reference in "Sanies I," and more fully as the Alba in Dream of
Fair to Middling Women. The affection seemed to have been one-sided,
however, and she would eventually marry SB's best friend A. J. "Con"
Leventhal. Her death in 1959 increased the already close bond between SB
and Leventhal.
1925-1926: Sees W.B. Yeats's versions of Sophocles' Oedipus the King
and Oedipus at Colonus at the Abbey Theatre. Toward the end of
1926, insomnia, night sweats and feelings of panic begin to afflict him.
In August of 1926, he visits France for the first time, taking a bicycle tour
of the châteaux of the Loire Valley, to improve his spoken French.
On his return to Ireland he moves into rooms at 39 New Square in TCD. At
the end of 1926, Alfred Péron arrives form Paris as the new exchange lecteur.
Péron and SB's friendship lasts throughout the `30s and is to have major
significance during WWII.
1927: With an American friend, Charles Clark, he tours Florence and
Venice to improve his spoken Italian. While there he tours museums and
galleries, studying artistic masterpieces that will resurface in much of his subsequent
writing. At Trinity he completes his examinations, places first in his
class, and receives his BA in Modern Languages (French and Italian).
1928: Wins a research prize (either £50 or £100) from TCD for his essay
on "Unanimisme." Through the good offices of his mentor
Rudmose-Brown he obtains a teaching post in French and English at Campbell
College, Belfast, a residential public school while he waits to take up his
exchange lectureship as Lectueur d'Anglais at École Normale
Supérieure in Paris. Teaches for two terms in Belfast and dislikes
the experience, finding it difficult to teach elementary material and getting
up in time for his first lesson. Returns to Dublin in the summer and
meets his cousin, Peggy Sinclair, who will appear as the Smeraldina-Rima in Dream
of Fair to Middling Women. Her fictional treatment is, to say the
least, unsympathetic. In October, despite heated parental opposition, he
visits Peggy in Kassel, Germany. Leaves Kassel at the end of October and
arrives in Paris on the last day of the month to take up his teaching post as Lectueur
d'Anglais at École Normale Supérieure. Meets his predecessor
Thomas MacGreevy who becomes a lifelong confidant and who introduces him to
influential writers and publishers living in Paris, James Joyce, Eugene Jolas,
and Sylvia Beach among them. Although he is not enthusiastic about a
scholarly career, his immersion in the Parisian literary circle has profound
artistic import. He returns to Kassel for the Christmas holiday, and much
of that stay is parodied in Dream of Fair to Middling Women.
1929: Meets Suzanne Deschevaux-Demesnil at a private tennis club; he
will eventually marry her in 1961. SB publishes his first critical essay,
"Dante . . . Bruno. Vico .
. Joyce" in transition magazine, together with his first piece of
fiction, "Assumption." Makes many trips to Kassel throughout
1929 to visit Peggy (and her family).
1930: Publishes his first separate work, the long poem, Whoroscope,
which he writes in several hours on June 15 for a contest, on the subject of
Time, sponsored by Richard Aldington and Nancy Cunard, which prize he
wins. Begins to translate the "Anna Livia Plurabelle" section
of Joyce's Work in Progress (later to become Finnegans Wake) with
Alfred Péron. Under a commission arranged by Thomas McGreevy, he begins
to write the monograph, Proust, which is heavily reliant on his deep
reading of Schopenhauer; delivers completed monograph to Chatto and Windus
toward end of September on his way home to Dublin (via London) to take up his
appointment as Lecturer in French at TCD. First meets Jack B. Yeats (in
November), an artist who exercises considerably influence on SB. SB
eventually purchases a painting called "Morning," which hangs over
his Paris desk for most of his life.
1931: Reluctantly plays a part in three performances of Le Kid at
the Peacock Theatre between February 19-21, SB's only known acting part.
Has a falling out with his mother and grows increasingly dissatisfied
with his teaching post at TCD. Visits France with his brother,
Frank. Translates numerous pieces for the Surrealist number of This
Quarter. In late Autumn writes "Enueg." In September
becomes engrossed in Victor Bérard's French translation of Homer's Odyssey.
Regularly visits the National Gallery of Ireland. Decides to resign his
post at TCD, though the execution of this decision comes the following year in
a letter from Kassel, Germany.
1932: Moves to Paris, resumes friendship with Joyce in the first few
weeks, and completes his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women.
Writes "Serena I" after returning to Dublin at the end of August.
1933: Learns that Peggy Sinclair has died of tuberculosis on May
3. Father dies on June 26 of a heart attack, which death devastates (and
haunts) SB. Finds out on September 25 that Charles Prentice accepted his
collection of stories (several of which are recast versions of episodes from Dream
of Fair to Middling Women) called More Pricks Than Kicks (MPTK).
Writes the story "Echo's Bones" as an end piece for the short-story
collection, but Chatto and Windus rejects it, and it remains unpublished.
Commences intensive psychotherapy in London at the Tavistock Clinic after
Christmas to manage his deepening depression. Translates numerous pieces for
Nancy Cunard's Negro Anthology which is published in 1934.
1934: Publishes "A Case in a Thousand" in the Bookman
in August, which reflects his immersion in psychotherapy. MPTK is
published in London on May 24. Writes the four line poem
"Gnome" and an enthusiastic review of MacGreevy's Poems for Dublin
Magazine.
1935: Attends Carl G. Jung's third lecture at the Tavistock Clinic with
his analyst, Wilfred Bion, in October, an experience that resurfaces most
overtly in All That Fall (written twenty-one years later) and Footfalls
(written over forty years later). Begins writing Murphy on August
20, which makes extensive use of his detailed knowledge of London's
geographical terrain. A collection of thirteen poems is published in
December, Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates. He terminates
psychotherapy.
1936: He returns to Dublin to complete Murphy. Briefly
considers going to Moscow to the State Institute of Cinematography, writing to
Eisenstein about the possibility of becoming his pupil, but this comes to
nothing. Writes the poem "Cascando" in July. Leaves the
family home, Cooldrinagh, on September 28 and travels around Germany, keeping a
detailed diary of his excursions. Returns to Cooldrinagh. "Boss"
Sinclair dies on May 4. SB's brother marries on August 24. SB
leaves Dublin in the middle of October for Paris, which is to be his permanent
home for the next fifty-three years.
1937: First significant attempt to write a play, which is based on the
last years in the life of Dr. Samuel Johnson and is called Human Wishes.
Returns to Dublin to give evidence at a trial against Oliver St. John Gogarty's
book, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street, the action brought by Harry
"Boss" Sinclair, before his death, for accusations of slander.
Following his testimony, during which he is thoroughly humiliated, SB returns
to Paris.
1938: After dining with friends on 7 January, SB is stabbed by a beggar
and pimp named Prudent. Recovers in Hôpital Broussais, where he corrects
proofs to Murphy, and is visited by Suzanne, who not long thereafter
begins to live with him. Murphy is finally published, after 42
rejections, in March. SB starts to write poetry in French, which allows
him to begin purging his writing of unnecessary superfluities.
1939: Hitler invades Poland on September 1; two days later Chamberlain
announces that Britain is at war with Germany (as is France by this
time). SB is caught in Dublin visiting his mother but immediately returns
to Paris, famously declaring his preference for France at war to Ireland at
peace. Joyce's Finnegans Wake is published.
1940: France crumbles under the Nazi assault in June.
1941: In February SB begins to write Watt in Paris. Joins
the Resistance cell on September 1 called "Gloria SMH," primarily an
information network, a decidedly dangerous enterprise—despite SB's subsequently
dismissive attitude regarding the experience. Joyce dies in Zurich in
January.
1942: Alfred Péron is arrested. SB and Suzanne escape a close
encounter with the Gestapo and find refuge on October
1943: Continues on March 1 to write Watt, primarily to ward off
ennui.
1944: Finishes manuscript of Watt on December 28.
1945: SB and Suzanne leave Roussillon for Paris early in the year, and
SB immediately returns to Dublin to visit his mother only to learn that she
suffers from Parkinson's disease. SB joins the Irish Red Cross as a
translator and quartermaster in order to return to France and is posted at St-Lô,
Normandy. Péron dies on May 1. SB returns to Paris toward the end
of the year when his contract comes to an end. He is awarded the Croix de
Guerre for his role in the Resistance.
1946: In Paris writes a short story entitled "Suite," later
called "
1947: Writes first full-length play, in French, Eleutheria.
Begins writing Molloy on May 2 at New Place in Foxrock. Between
this date and January of 1950, completes Molloy, Malone meurt (begun
on November 27), and L'Innommable (begun on March 29, 1949) in what
amounts to SB's most creatively fertile period.
1948-1949: En attendant Godot is written between October of 1948
and January of 1949, between Malone meurt and L'Innommable, in
order to break through an artistic impasse.
1950: May Beckett dies on August 25 and is buried with her husband in
the Protestant cemetery at Redford. Signs an exclusive contract with Les
Editions de Minuit which will be the publisher for his French work for the
remainder of his life. Its publisher, Jérôme Lindon, will become a
life-long friend.
1951: Molloy is published in March, Malone meurt in
October. The manuscript of Texts pour rien is completed in
December.
1952: Builds a house, with money his mother left him, near the village
of Ussy-sur-Marne, a place of refuge and solitude that soon facilitates SB's
creative energies. Godot is published in October. Eleutheria
is announced for publication and then withdrawn at the last moment.
1953: Roger Blin directs the premier of Godot on January 19 at
the Théâtre de Babylon. The show receives mixed, but generally
sympathetic reviews. Watt is published. Watt is
finally published in English but in Paris. Fledgling American publishing
house, Grove Press, becomes SB's exclusive American publisher, and the publisher,
Barney Rosset becomes a life-long friend. SB begins to translate Godot
into English for his American publisher. His international
reputation is considerably advanced by his American publisher's willingness to
promote so apparently un-commercial a writer.
1954: Learns that Frank is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
SB, devastated, rushes to his aid in Killiney. Frank dies on September
13. SB writes first draft of what becomes Fin de partie (Endgame),
this early version with only two characters.
1955: The English edition of Molloy is published in March by
Grove Press. Waiting for Godot opens in London and Dublin.
Finishes first draft of Fin de partie in the summer. Nouvelles
et textes pour rien is published in November. "Getting known."
1956: The American production of Godot opens on January 3 at the
Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami under the direction of Alan Schneider.
The production is badly received. During the summer, SB writes All
That Fall at the BBC's request; this radio play is clearly saturated with
memories of his Foxrock upbringing.
1957: All That Fall airs on BBC Third Programme on January
13; the broadcast delights SB who is busy rehearsing in Paris for Fin de
partie. Jack B. Yeats dies in March. Fin de partie is
produced in London on April 3 at the Royal Court Theatre in French. SB
translates Fin de partie into English between May and August.
1958: Begins writing Krapp's Last Tape, a deeply personal play,
in February. Also begins in January the laborious task of translating L'Innommable
into English, published as The Unnamable by Grove Press. On July 8
SB and Suzanne set out for a three-week vacation to Yugoslavia. Begins
writing Comment c'est in December.
1959: Sends Embers to BBC in February. Ethna MacCarthy dies
on May 25. Receives an honorary D. Litt. from TCD on July 2, which he
reluctantly accepts.
1960: Finishes Comment c'est in the summer. On October 8
begins to write what is to become Happy Days, working on it throughout
the next three months. In the winter moves to a permanent apartment in
Paris.
1961: Marries Suzanne on March
1962: Begins Play in July and finishes translating Happy Days
as Oh, Les beaux jours in November. Begins translating How It
Is.
1963: Completes Film and Play and assists with the German
production of the latter, thus establishing his continuous engagement with the
production of his own plays. Meets Billie Whitelaw for the first time at
the London production of Play; becomes captivated by her and commences a
long working relationship and a close friendship with the actress.
1964. Travels to New York during the intensely hot summer to aid in the
production of Film, starring legendary film actor Buster Keaton (whose
work SB greatly admires); this is to be SB's only visit to the United States.
1965: Writes Imagination morte imaginez and Eh Joe (his
first television play) in the spring. Writes Assez and begins Le
dépeupleur in the autumn.
1966: Translates Textes pour rien into English and helps with the
translation of Watt into French.
1967: SB is diagnosed with glaucoma. Thomas MacGreevy, one of his
oldest friends, dies, which, consequently, devastates SB. Begins a
derecting career in Berlin at the Schiller-Theater Werkstatt with Endspiel
(Endgame) which opens 26 Sept. 1967.
1969: Writes Sans and translates it as Lessness.
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 23. A dark horse, SB
beat out the favorite that year, Norman Mailer. Rather than rejecting it
like Jean-Paul Sartre, he sends his French publisher, Jérôme Lindon, to accept
the prize in his absence and quickly disperses the prize money to needy
friends.
1970: Finally consents to the long-delayed publications of Mercier et
Camier and Premier amour, both of which were written in 1946.
Undergoes eye surgery for cataracts.
1972: Writes Not I in the spring and translates Premier amour
into English in April-May. During the summer, SB is inundated by friends,
family, and visitors, among them Deirdre Bair who is writing SB's first
biography. He famously tells her that he will neither help nor hinder her
efforts.
1973: Despite an emotionally wrenching series of rehearsals, Billie
Whitelaw leads a very successful production of Not I in London, thus
deepening SB's respect for her talents. Writes As the Story Was Told
in August.
1974: Experiences a creative explosion and is inspired to begin That
Time, a companion piece to Not I, on June
1975: Directs Godot in German at Berlin in March and begins Footfalls.
Also directs the French version of Not I (Pas moi) in Paris in
April and writes Pour finir encore in December.
1976: Begins the television play _but the clouds_ in the
autumn. Footfalls and That Time are performed at the Royal
Court Theatre on May 20 as part of a seventieth birthday celebration.
Beckett himself directs Whitelaw in Footfalls.
1977: Begins to write Company, a profoundly personal piece
saturated with memories form childhood. Filmed version of Not I is
aired on BBC2 in April. Directs Krapp's Last Tape in Berlin.
1979: SB's oldest friend of more than fifty years, A.J.
("Con") Leventhal dies on October 3. Also begins writing Mal
vu mal dit (Ill Seen Ill Said).
1980:. On May 7, SB flies to London to direct Endgame with
Rick Cluchey and the San Quentin Drama Workshop. At those rehearsals S.
E. Gontarski asks SB for a new play for a Symposium planned for May of
1981: Ohio Impromptu has its world premiere in Ohio, directed by
Alan Schneider, on 9 May 1981. Writes and translates Rockaby at
the instigation of Danielle Labeille for another festival honoring his 75th
birthday.
1982: Writes and translates Catastrophe; writes and directs
"Nacht und Träume." SB's production of Quad is broadcast
in Germany by Süddeutscher Rundfunk, and Catastrophe is performed at the
Avignon Festival.
1984: Roger Blin dies on January 20. Visits London to oversee San
Quentin Drama Workshop production of Waiting for Godot, prepared by
Walter Asmuss.
1986: SB's health starts to decline with the beginnings of emphysema.
1988: Writes "Fragment for Barney Rosset," which becomes Stirrings
Still; published in a luxury edition with illustrations by Louis LeBrocquy.
1989: Suzanne dies on July 17. On December 11, SB falls into
a coma and dies at 1:00 p.m. on December 22. He is buried beside Suzanne
in Montparnasse Cemetery.
1992: Dream of Fair to Middling Women is posthumously published.
1995: Eleutheria is posthumously published.
Samuel Beckett
28/10/2008 15:52 revised 6/12/2008 16:34
URL:http://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/bin/wc.dll?groveproc~genauth~56~0~info~chrono
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Rubén Moratalla Mayo
rumoma@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press
MORE
CHRONOLOGIES: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]