Samuel Beckett: A Biography
Her breakthrough biography, National Book Award winner, and the starting point for her career as a major literary biographer.
Author guide
Deirdre Bair Books in Order
Deirdre Bair (1935–2020) was an American literary scholar, biographer, and memoirist. She taught comparative literature and became a full-time writer after publishing Samuel Beckett: A Biography, which won the National Book Award for paperback biography in 1981. Her subsequent biographies examined Simone de Beauvoir, Anaïs Nin, Carl Jung, Saul Steinberg, and Al Capone. Her final book, Parisian Lives, was a memoir about researching and writing her biographies of Beckett and de Beauvoir and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
biographymemoirnonfiction
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me
A concise introduction to Bair's voice and methods through her memoir of researching Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (1)
- Calling It Quits: Late-Life Divorce and Starting Over
nonfiction · 2007
Nonfiction (7)
- Samuel Beckett: A Biography
biography · 1978
- Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
biography · 1990
- Anaïs Nin: A Biography
biography · 1995
- Jung: A Biography
biography · 2003
- Saul Steinberg: A Biography
biography · 2012
Explores the life and career of graphic artist and The New Yorker magazine mainstay Saul Steinberg.
- Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend
biography · 2016
"From his heyday to the present moment, Al Capone's life has gripped the public imagination, and his gangster persona has been immortalized in the countless movies and books inspired by his exploits. But who was the man behind the legend?…
