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How did Samuel Beckett support himself while hiding in unoccupied France?
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Samuel Beckett
Irish playwright, author, and critic Samuel Beckett, known for his plays on existential themes, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
While hiding in the unoccupied zone of France during World War II, the Irish author Samuel Beckett supported himself by working as an agricultural laborer.1
Beckett had initially remained in Paris following the German occupation due to his status as a citizen of a neutral country, but he joined an underground resistance group in 1941. He fled to the unoccupied zone in 1942 after learning that members of his group had been arrested by the Gestapo. He remained in hiding and continued his work as a laborer until the country was liberated. During this period of seclusion, he also managed to complete his novel Watt.12