Deirdre Bair, author of acclaimed biographies, dies at 84

Deirdre Bair, an acclaimed biographer whose career flourished after she boldly wrote a letter to reclusive playwright Samuel Beckett, who invited her to Paris to interview him, died April 17 at her home in New Haven, Conn. She was 84.

She had a heart ailment, said her daughter, Katney Bair.

Ms. Bair, who was completing her graduate studies in the early 1970s, called herself “an accidental biographer” and chose Beckett as a subject only because his name came early in the alphabet. Considered by many to be the greatest playwright of the 20th century, the Irish-born Beckett lived in Paris and was best known for his 1952 play “Waiting for Godot.”