In the first biography of Samuel Beckett, Deirdre Bair chronicles Beckett's tumultuous relationship with his family, the psychosomatic illnesses that often kept him from writing, and the autobiographical strains of his work. In a remarkable literary biography, Dierdre Bair sheds light on Nobel Prizewinning novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett in one of the most important and fascinating reads about his life. From his upper-middle-class Irish childhood, his early years in Paris, his complex relationship with James Joyce, the psychological anguish of his apprenticeship, his heroic service with the French Resistance, and everything in between, Bair portrays the life of a despairing poet and an enigmatic artist through hundreds of interviews and years of research in Europe. Samuel Beckett tells of his relationships with publishers, actors, directors, and friends, as well as his struggles in creating the masterful work that led to his fame, providing a book that is everything a scholar or reader could hope for.