Samuel Beckett (April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989) was an Irish novelist, playwright, poet, and literary critic. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical works feature bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic episodes of life, coupled with black comedy and literary Absurdism. Beckett is widely regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century, credited with transforming modern theatre. Beckett continued his pre-occupation with memory and its effect on the confined and observed self, as well as with the positioning of bodies in space, a direct correlation to him having to hide for the German Gestapo in his early life. As the opening phrases of Company make clear: "A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine." "To one on his back in the dark. This he can tell by the pressure on his hind parts and by how the dark changes when he shuts his eyes and again when he opens them again. Only a small part of what is said can be verified. As for example when he hears, You are on your back in the dark. Then he must acknowledge the truth of what is said. "Themes of aloneness and the doomed desire to successfully connect with other human beings are expressed in several late pieces, including Company.