December 22, 1989

On this day in 1989, Irish playwright Samuel Beckett died. Following his wife Suzanne’s death in July of that same year, Beckett was confined to a nursing home suffering from emphysema and Parkinson’s. He died at the age of 83. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His wife viewed the award as a “catastrophe,” fearing the fame and attention it would garner. Beckett, however, was already quite famous for his plays such as “Waiting for Godot,” “Krapp’s Last Tape,” “Endgame,” and “Happy Days.”