Samuel Beckett by Edmund S. Valtman, 1969. Caricature of Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 - 22 December 1989) an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator, Nobel Prize winner and author of the internationally acclaimed play Waiting for Godot. Never a fan of public life, Beckett chose to immerse himself in theology, literature and philosophy