The celebrated author Christy Brown was born in 1932, the tenth of twenty-two children born to a bricklayer and a homemaker in working-class Dublin, Ireland.

Only thirteen of the children survived infancy, five older than young Christy. His mother noticed developmental differences in her son by the time he was four months old; at a year old he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and many doctors told the Browns that nothing could be done for the child, who would always be physically and mentally disabled.

Brown's family was not wealthy in material goods, but they were generous with their time and affection for their son and brother. As a child he was taken out by his brothers, first in a battered go-car and later a wheelchair, into the streets, parks, moviehouses and countryside. Gradually he learned to speak, and to write and paint using his...