Samuel Beckett ""La Fin"", or "The End"), not realizing that Beckett had only submitted the first half of the story; Simone de Beauvoir refused to publish the second part. Beckett also began to write his fourth novel, "Mercier et Camier", which was not published until 1970. The novel presaged his most famous work, the play "Waiting for Godot", which was written not long afterwards. More importantly, the novel was Beckett’s first long work that he wrote in French, the language of most of his subsequent works which were strongly supported by Jérôme Lindon director of his parisian publishing house Les Éditions de
Samuel Beckett aloneness and the doomed desire to successfully connect with other human beings are expressed in several late pieces, including "Company" and "Rockaby". In the hospital and nursing home where he spent his final days, Beckett wrote his last work, the 1988 poem "What is the Word" ("Comment dire"). The poem grapples with an inability to find words to express oneself, a theme echoing Beckett's earlier work, though possibly amplified by the sickness he experienced late in life. Jack MacGowran was the first actor to do a one-man show based on the works of Beckett. He debuted "End of Day" in