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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