Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Portora Royal School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1927. He made his poetry debut in 1930 with Whoroscope and followed it with essays and two novels before World War II. He wrote one of his most famous plays, Waiting for Godot, in 1949 but it wasn't published in English until 1954. Waiting for Godot brought Beckett international fame and firmly established him as a leading figure in the Theater of the Absurd. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He continued to write prolifically for radio, television, and the theater until his death in 1989.