BECKETT, SAMUEL

born April 13?, 1906, Foxrock, County Dublin, Ire. died Dec. 22, 1989, Paris, France Samuel Beckett, 1965. in full Samuel Barclay Beckett author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot). Additional reading Raymond Federman and John Fletcher, Samuel Beckett: His Works and His Critics (1970), is an exhaustive bibliography of the author's writings and of writings about him. Richard N. Coe, Beckett (1964), is a useful introduction. Biographical studies include Vivian Mercier, Beckett/Beckett (1977); Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography (1978, reissued 1993); Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett (1996); Lois Gordon, The World of Samuel Beckett, 1906-1946 (1996); and James Knowlson, Damned to Fame (1996). Many critical studies have been devoted to Beckett; among these are Hugh Kenner, Samuel Beckett: A Critical Study, new ed. (1968); Ruby Cohn, Samuel Beckett: The Comic Gamut (1962); John Fletcher, The Novels of Samuel Beckett, 2nd ed. (1970); Rubin Rabinowvitz, The Development of Samuel Beckett's Fiction (1984); Andrew K. Kennedy, Samuel Beckett (1989); Alan Astro, Understanding Samuel Beckett (1990); and, specifically on Beckett's plays, Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd ed., rev. and enlarged (1980, reissued 1991); and John Fletcher and John Spurling, Beckett the Playwright, 3rd expanded ed. (1985). Beckett's early writings are the subject of Raymond Federman, Journey to Chaos: Samuel Beckett's Early Fiction (1965); and Lawrence E. Harvey, Samuel Beckett: Poet & Critic (1970). Anthologies of important Beckett criticism are Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. by Martin Esslin (1965); Samuel Beckett Now, ed. by Melvin J. Friedman, 2nd ed. (1975); Lawrence Graver and Raymond Federman (eds.), Samuel Beckett; The Critical Heritage (1979, reprinted 1997); and John Pilling (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Beckett (1994).