Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt (born August 19, 1930, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died July 19, 2009, New York, New York) was an American author and teacher who was perhaps best known for the memoir Angela’s Ashes (1996), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize.

Frank was the first child of Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt. The Great Depression and his father’s alcoholism kept the family destitute, and, when Frank was four years old, the McCourts left New York to join relatives in Limerick, Ireland. The family’s situation failed to improve, however. The title Angela’s Ashes refers to McCourt’s memory of his mother staring into the unlit fireplace. At age 10 he nearly died of typhoid fever. During 14 weeks in the hospital, he read voraciously while confined to his bed. In 1941 his father left for England, supposedly to work in a wartime munitions factory, but the family never received the money he had promised to send.

At age 13 McCourt dropped out of school. With money saved from delivering telegrams, he returned to New York City in 1949. He worked on loading docks and later served in the Korean War. After military service, he studied English at New York University (B.A., 1957) on the G.I. Bill of Rights. He subsequently taught public school for 27 years, first in vocational schools and then at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan from 1972 to 1988. His brother Malachy was an actor and author, and in the 1980s they wrote and performed an autobiographical cabaret revue, A Couple of Blaguards.

After retiring from teaching in 1988, McCourt concentrated on writing his memoirs. Angela’s Ashes, which was published eight years later, was a critical and commercial success. In addition to earning a Pulitzer, the book also won the National Book Critics Circle award, and in 1999 it was adapted into a well-received film. McCourt also wrote the memoirs ’Tis (2000) and Teacher Man (2005).