Beckett: “a writer whose work gains deep meaning in difficult times”

Writing for The Irish Times, Emilie Morin cites Samuel Beckett as a politically active citizen who was concerned with cultural and societal change:

“Although many of the petitions Beckett signed were published or discussed in large-circulation newspapers, his name remained largely unnoticed among more obviously “political” writers. This is unsurprising, for it was often thought that Beckett had little interest in the outside world and preferred absolute solitude. Many of his interlocutors have described him as melancholic, austere and withdrawn. Yet there is also another Beckett, who was knowledgeable about world politics and believed that he could contribute to a better world. He read newspapers assiduously and sustained conversations and friendships with politicised writers, publishers and artists across Europe and North America. His French and American publishers, the Editions de Minuit and Grove Press, published his plays and novels alongside influential political texts by Leon Trotsky, Herbert Marcuse, Nelson Mandela, Roger Casement or Malcolm X.”

— Emilie Morin, The Irish Times