Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), one of the most important writers in twentieth-century literature and drama, was born in Foxrock, Ireland, and attended Trinity University in Dublin. Beckett's literary output included novels, stories, poems, and plays, including Waiting for Godot, widely considered one of existentialism's founding texts. In 1969, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and commended for having "transformed the destitution of man into his exaltation."