(‘Dante … Bruno. Vico . . Joyce’) and first story (‘Assumption’) in transition magazine. 1930
July Whoroscope (Paris: Hours Press). October Returns to TCD to begin a two-year appointment as lecturer in French. November Introduced by MacGreevy to the painter and writer Jack B. Yeats in Dublin. 1931
March Proust (London: Chatto and Windus). September First Irish publication, the poem ‘Alba’ in Dublin Magazine. 1932
January Resigns his lectureship via telegram from Kassel and moves to Paris. Feb.–June First serious attempt at a novel, the posthumously published Dream of Fair to Middling Women. December Story ‘Dante and the Lobster’ appears in This Quarter (Paris). 1933
3 May Death of Peggy Sinclair from tuberculosis. 26 June Death of William Beckett from a heart attack. 1934
January Moves to London and begins psychoanalysis with Wilfred Bion at the Tavistock Clinic. February Negro Anthology ,edited by Nancy Cunard and with numerous translations by Beckett from the French (London: Wishart and Company). May More Pricks Than Kicks (London: Chatto and Windus). Aug.–Sept. Contributes several stories and reviews to literary magazines in London and Dublin. 1935
November Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates , a cycle of thirteen poems (Paris: Europa Press). 1936
Returns to Dublin. 29 September Leaves Ireland for a seven-month stay in Germany. 1937
Apr.–Aug. First serious attempt at a play, Human Wishes, about Samuel Johnson and his household. October Settles in Paris. 1938
6/7 January Stabbed by a street pimp in Montparnasse. Among his visitors at Hôpital Broussais is Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, an acquaintance who is to become Beckett’s companion for life. March Murphy (London: Routledge). April Begins writing poetry directly in French. 1939
3 September Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. Beckett abruptly ends a visit to Ireland and returns to Paris the next day. 1940
June Travels south with Suzanne following the Fall of France, as part of the exodus from the capital. September Returns to Paris. 1941
13 January Death of James Joyce in Zurich. 1 September Joins the Resistance cell Gloria SMH. 1942
16 August Goes into hiding with Suzanne after the arrest of close friend Alfred Péron. 6 October Arrival at Roussillon, a small village in unoccupied southern France. 1944
24 August Liberation of Paris. 1945
30 March Awarded the Croix de Guerre. Aug.–Dec. Volunteers as a storekeeper and interpreter with the Irish Red Cross in Saint-Lô, Normandy. 1946
July Publishes first fiction in French – a truncated version of the short story ‘Suite’ (later to become ‘La Fin’) in Les Temps modernes , owing to a misunderstanding by editors – as well as a critical essay on Dutch painters Geer and Bram van Velde in Cahiers d’art. 1947
Jan.–Feb. Writes first play, in French, Eleutheria (published posthumously). April Murphy , French translation (Paris: Bordas). 1948
Undertakes a number of translations commissioned by UNESCO and by Georges Duthuit. 1950
25 August Death of May Beckett. 1951
March Molloy , in French (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit). November Malone meurt (Paris: Minuit). 1952
Purchases land at Ussy-sur-Marne, subsequently Beckett’s preferred location for writing. September En attendant Godot (Paris: Minuit). 1953
5 January Premiere of Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone in Montparnasse, directed by Roger Blin. May L’Innommable (Paris: Minuit). August Watt , in English (Paris: Olympia Press). 1954
8 September Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press). 13 September Death of Frank Beckett from lung cancer. 1955
March Molloy , translated into English with Patrick Bowles (New York: Grove; Paris: Olympia). 3 August First English production of Godot opens in London at the Arts Theatre. November Nouvelles et Textes pour rien (Paris: Minuit). 1956