Samuel Beckett Beckett never sold, donated or gave away. He refused to allow the play to be translated into film but did allow it to be played on television. Beckett translated all of his works into English himself, with the exception of "Molloy", for which he collaborated with Patrick Bowles. The success of "Waiting for Godot" opened up a career in theatre for its author. Beckett went on to write successful full-length plays, including "Fin de partie" ("Endgame") (1957), "Krapp's Last Tape" (1958, written in English), "Happy Days" (1961, also written in English), and "Play" (1963). In 1961, Beckett received the International
Samuel Beckett though he in fact broke off from the existentialist movement and founded his own philosophy). Though many of the themes are similar, Beckett had little affinity for existentialism as a whole. Broadly speaking, the plays deal with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair, in the face of an uncomprehending and incomprehensible world. The words of Nell—one of the two characters in "Endgame" who are trapped in ashbins, from which they occasionally peek their heads to speak—can best summarize the themes of the plays of Beckett's middle period: "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,