S.B TIMELINE

1906 13 April: Born at Foxrock near Dublin, second son of William Beckett, a quantity surveyor, and his wife Mary.

1923-27 Trinity College, Dublin; placed first in first class in Modern Literature (French and Italian). A natural athlete, at school he excelled at cricket. Later, he was to play for Dublin University and in two first-class games against Northamptonshire. As a result, he became the only Nobel laureate to have an entry in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the bible of cricket.

1928-30 Teaches at Campbell College, Belfast; then as Exchange lector in Paris where he meets James Joyce.

Summer 1930: Issue of his first separately published work, the poem Whoroscope.

1930-32 Assistant lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin.

1932-37 Studies and travels, mainly in Germany, before settling permanently in Paris.

1938 Murphy, his first novel, published. Begins a lifelong companionship with Suzanne Descheveaux-Dumesnil.

1942 A resistance group in which Beckett is active is betrayed to the Gestapo; he and Suzanne escape to the south of France.

1942-45 Ekes out a living as an agricultural labourer not far from Avignon. Writes Watt, his last English novel.

1946 Back in Paris; writes in French the three novels (Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable), and the play Waiting for Godot.

1952 Waiting for Godot published in Paris.

1953 Premiere in Paris of En Attendant Godot.

1955 Premiere in London of Waiting for Godot, at the Arts Theatre, directed by Peter Hall.

1957 First broadcast of All That Fall on BBC radio. Premiere in London of Endgame in French.

1958 World premiere of Krapp’s Last Tape in London. Premiere in London of Endgame in English.

1959 Embers wins Prix Italia.

1961 Happy Days has its premiere, at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, directed by Alan Schneider, with Ruth White and John C Becher.

1962 Happy Days, with Brenda Bruce and Peter Duguid, directed by George Devine, has its London premiere at the Royal Court.

1963 French premiere of Happy Days (Oh Les Beaux Jours) with Madeleine Renaud at the Odéon in Paris. The production visits the Aldwych in the World Theatre Season of 1965. Premiere in Germany of Play (staged by the National at the Old Vic in 1964, directed by George Devine.

1966 Eh Joe broadcast on BBC2.

1969 Beckett wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

1972 Premiere in New York of Not I.

1975 Happy Days staged by the National Theatre at the Old Vic, with Peggy Ashcroft and Alan Webb, directed by Peter Hall. This production transfers (now with Harry Lomax as Willie) to the new Lyttelton Theatre on the South Bank as part of the NT’s opening season.

1976 Premiere in London of Footfalls.

1979 Beckett directs Billie Whitelaw and Leonard Fenton in Happy Days at the Royal Court.

1989 Samuel Beckett dies in Paris.

SAMUEL BECKETT - a brief chronology

28/10/2008    17:35 revised 6/12/2008 17:15

URL: www.bam.org/docs/Samuel%20Beckett%20chronology.doc

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]

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