Beckett 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.
1923-27	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 (in transition)
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
1936-37	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.
1942-44	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
1947-48		Malone meurt
1948-49		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.
1950-51		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
1955-56		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 Fall broadcast 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
1958-60		Comment c'est
1959	Embers broadcast on BBC, 24 June	Embers	Embers La dernière bande Cendres
1960-61		Happy Days
1961	Marries Suzanne in a secret civil ceremony in England, 25 March.		Happy Days Comment c'est
1961-62		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
1963-65		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.
1977-79		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. Catastrophe performed 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

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