Timeline
The following chronology owes a debt to several sources, in particular James Knowlson's Damned to Fame (1996).
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Life and Events |
Working On |
Publishes |
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1906 |
Born in Foxrock, County Dublin, on 13 April 1906 in the family house, Cooldrinagh. |
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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. |
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1923 - 1927 |
Attends Trinity College, Dublin, earning a B.A. in French and Italian. |
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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). |
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1929 |
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"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) |
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1930 |
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Proust |
Whoroscope |
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1931 |
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Proust |
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1932 |
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Dream of Fair to Middling Women |
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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 |
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1934 |
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More Pricks Than Kicks |
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1935 |
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Murphy |
Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates, cycle of 13 poems written 1931-35 |
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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. |
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1938 |
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Murphy |
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1939 |
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Murphy in French |
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1940 |
When German troops invade Paris, Beckett and Suzanne travel to Alcachon, not returning until November. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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1946 |
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The Nouvelles ("La fin", "L'expulsé", "Le calmant", and "Premier amour") Mercier et Camier |
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1947 |
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Eleutheria Molloy |
Murphy in French |
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1947 - 1948 |
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Malone meurt |
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1948 - 1949 |
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En attendant Godot |
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1949 |
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"Three Dialogues" |
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1949 - 1950 |
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L'innomable Anthology of Mexican Poetry, compiled by Octavio Paz and translated by Beckett |
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1950 |
Beckett's mother, May, dies 25 August. |
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1950 - 1951 |
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Textes pour rien |
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1951 |
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Molloy Malone meurt |
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1952 |
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En attendant Godot |
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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 |
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1954 |
Beckett's brother, Frank, dies 13 September. |
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1955 |
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Nouvelles et textes pour rien(left) Molloyin English |
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1955 - 1956 |
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Fin de partie |
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1956 |
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Malone meurt in English All That Fall |
Malone Dies From an Abandoned Work |
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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 |
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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 |
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1958 - 1960 |
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Comment c'est |
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1959 |
Embers broadcast on BBC, 24 June |
Embers |
Embers La dernière bande Cendres |
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1960 - 1961 |
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Happy Days |
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1961 |
Marries Suzanne in a secret civil ceremony in England, 25 March. |
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Happy Days Comment c'est |
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1961 - 1962 |
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Cascando |
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1962 |
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Words and Music |
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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 |
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1963 - 1965 |
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All Strange Away Imaginez morte imaginez |
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1964 |
Travels to New York for production of Film, starring silent film star Buster Keaton, his only visit to the United States. |
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Play Comédie How It Is |
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1965 |
Film first shown at the New York Film Festival. |
Assez Come and Go |
Imagination morte imaginez, in French and English |
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1965 - 1970 |
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Le dépeupleur |
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1966 |
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Eh Joe |
Dis Joe Va et vient Paroles et musique Assez Bing |
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1967 |
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Eh Joe Film Come and Go From an Abandoned Work Poémes Stories and Texts for Nothing Enough Ping Watt in French |
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1968 |
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Watt in French L'issue |
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1969 |
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In Tunisia at the time, Beckett goes into hiding, sending Jérôme Lindon to receive the prize. |
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Sans |
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1970 |
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Mercier et Camier Premier amour Lessnesss Le dépeupleur |
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1971 |
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The Lost Ones |
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1972 |
Not I plays at Lincoln Center in September |
Not I |
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1973 |
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Not I |
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1975 |
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Footfalls |
Footfalls and Pas Moi |
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1976 |
Footfalls performed at Royal Court Theatre in London. |
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Fizzles That Time Pour finir encore et autre foirades |
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1976 |
That Time performed at Royal Court Theatre in London, 20 May. |
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1977 - 1979 |
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A Piece of Monologue Company |
A Piece of Monologue |
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1979 |
A Piece of Monologue performed in New York |
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1980 |
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Ohio Impromptu Rockaby |
Company |
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1981 |
Ohio Impromptu (above) performed at Ohio State University for 75th birthday Symposium. Rockabyperformed with Billie Whitelaw in Buffalo, New York. |
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Ohio Impromptu Mal vu mal dit Ill Seen Ill Said Rockaby |
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1982 |
Quad broadcast in Germany by Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany. Catastropheperformed at Avignon Festival. |
Catastrophe |
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1983 |
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Worstward Ho Catastrophe |
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1984 |
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Quad |
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1986 |
Diagnosed with ephysema, and moved into Le Tiers Temps nursing home. |
Stirrings Still "What Is the Word", a poem and his final work |
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1988 |
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Stirrings Still |
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1989 |
Suzanne dies 17 July, and Beckett dies 22 December. |
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Soubresauts |
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1992 |
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Dream of Fair to Middling Women |
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1995 |
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Eleutheria |