Samuel Beckett was born on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, near Dublin, Ireland, to a middle-class Protestant family. Beckett was an active and athletic boy, and he excelled at cricket. "You might say," Beckett said, "that I had a happy childhood . . . although I had little talent for happiness. But I was often lonely." He had a close and warm relationship with his father, Bill, but tension prevailed between Beckett and his mother, May. He attended the Portora Royal School in Enniskellen beginning in 1920, and upon graduation he matriculated at Dublin's prestigious Trinity College in 1923.

Beckett studied French and Italian at Trinity, and finally his bright academic potential began to be realized. By the end of his third year at Trinity, he won the Foundation scholarship, the most prestigious award given to undergraduates. While studying the French and Italian classics, he also became interested in contemporary literature, reading the...