Born November 28, 1931, Lismore, Ireland

Dervla Murphy was born on November 28, 1931, in the town of Lismore, located in the southern Irish county of Waterford. On her tenth birthday she received a bicycle and an atlas; this happy coincidence would provide the spark that would later ignite her life of travel. As a young girl, she would pore over the atlas’s maps and descriptions of faraway places. India, she decided, would be her first travel destination. By her calculation, the way to India had fewer watery obstacles than the routes to other exotic places. This was important because Murphy intended to make her journey by bicycle.

When Murphy was fourteen, her mother developed crippling arthritis. An only child, Murphy was obliged to leave the local convent school to care for her mother and keep house for her father. Done with formal schooling, she continued to educate...