Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was born near Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1906 into a Protestant, middle class home. His father was a quantity surveyor and his mother worked as a nurse. At the age of 14 he was sentto the same school that Oscar Wilde attended. Beckett is known to have commented, "I had little talent for happiness." This was evidenced by his frequent bouts of depression, even as a young man. Heoften stayed in bed until late in the afternoon and hated long conversations. As a young poet he apparently rejected the advances of James Joyce's daughter and then commented that he did not havefeelings that were human. This sense of depression would show up in much of his writing, especially inWaiting for Godot where it is a struggle to get through life.
Samuel Beckett moved to Paris in 1926and met James Joyce. He soon respected the older writer so much that at the age of 23 he wrote an essay defending Joyce's magnum opus to the public. In 1927, one year later, he won his first literaryprize for his poem entitled "Whoroscope." The essay was about the philosopher Descartes meditating on the subject of time and about the transiency of life. Beckett then completed a study of Proustwhich eventually led him to believe that habit was the "cancer of time." At this point Beckett left his post at Trinity College and traveled.
Beckett journeyed through Ireland, France, England, andGermany and continued to write poems and stories. It is likely that he met up with many of the tramps and vagabonds who later emerged in his writing, such as the two tramps Estragon and Vladimir in Waitingfor Godot. On his travels through Paris Beckett would always visit with Joyce for long periods.
Beckett permanently made Paris his home in 1937. Shortly after moving there, he was stabbed in thestreet by a man who had begged him for money. He had to recover from a perforated lung in the hospital. Beckett then went to visit his assailant, who remained in prison. When Beckett demanded to know...