Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906-1989) was an Irish playwright, poet, novelist, and critic who wrote in English and French, known for bleak tragicomic works featuring black comedy and absurdity. Best known for his play Waiting for Godot (1953), he transformed modern theatre and received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for innovative forms in novel and drama. A major figure in the Theatre of the Absurd, he joined the French Resistance during WWII and produced increasingly minimalistic works later in his career.