Samuel Beckett

Born in Ireland in 1906, Beckett began as a lecturer and critic in Dublin, writing his first novel in 1932 though it wouldn't see print for decades. He moved to Paris, fell into Joyce's orbit, and began writing in both English and French, sometimes as Andrew Belis. During the Second World War he joined the French Resistance and earned the Croix de Guerre in 1949. His breakthrough came with Waiting for Godot in 1953, a tragicomedy so spare it redefined what theatre could be. As his career deepened, the work grew even more austere - shorter, quieter, stripped of ornament, built from repetition and silence. In 1969 the Nobel committee cited his rendering of "the destitution of modern man" in new dramatic forms. He shared the first Prix International with Borges in 1961 and became the first Saoi of the Aosdána in 1984. He died in Paris in 1989 and was buried at Montparnasse; a 1998 poll by the Royal National Theatre named Godot the most significant English-language play of the century.