Frank McCourt

Francis "Frank" McCourt
McCourt in 2007 at Housing Works bookstore in New York City
Born	August 19, 1930(1930-08-19) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died	July 19, 2009 (aged 78) Manhattan, New York, United States
Occupation	Memoirist, Author, Teacher
Nationality	Irish
Spouse(s)	Ellen Frey (1994 – 2009), 3rd wife
Children	Margaret McCourt (daughter)
Relative(s)	Malachy, Michael and Prescott (brothers), Angela (mother), Malachy (father)

Francis "Frank" McCourt (August 19, 1930 - July 19, 2009) was an American-born Irish teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes.

His brothers Malachy McCourt and Alphie McCourt are also autobiographical writers. In the mid-1980s Francis and Malachy created the stage play A Couple of Blaguards, a two-man show about their lives and experiences.

Early life

Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of seven children of Malachy (died 1985) and Angela McCourt (died 1981).^[1] Unable to find steady work, in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to their mother's native Limerick, Ireland in 1934, where they sank deeper into poverty.^[2] McCourt's father, from Toome in Co. Antrim, who was often without work, drank with the little money he earned. When McCourt was eleven, his father left with other Irishmen to find work in the factories of wartime Coventry. He sent little money to the family, leaving Frank's mother to raise four surviving children. His public education ended at age 13, when the Congregation of Christian Brothers rejected him, despite a recommendation from his teacher. Frank held odd jobs and stole bread and milk in an effort to provide for his mother and three surviving brothers, Malachy, Michael (who now lives in San Francisco), and Alphonsus ("Alphie") (who lives in Manhattan). The three other siblings died in infancy or early childhood in the squalor of the family circumstances. Frank McCourt himself nearly died of typhoid fever when he was ten.^[3] In Angela's Ashes, McCourt described an entire block of houses sharing a single outhouse, flooded by constant rain, and infested with rats and vermin.^[4]

Career

Early career

At age nineteen he left Ireland, returning to the United States where, after a stint working in New York City's Biltmore Hotel, he was drafted during the Korean War and was sent to Germany. Upon his discharge from the US Army, he returned to New York City, where he held a series of jobs.

Teaching

He used the G.I. Bill to enroll in New York University, from which he ultimately graduated in 1957. He taught English at McKee High School in Staten Island. After receiving a Master's degree from Brooklyn College in 1967, he taught English at Stuyvesant High School in New York City (where he joined the American Federation of Teachers). He retired after thirty years.

Mr. McCourt also taught in the English department of New York City Technical College of the City University of New York. In a 1997 NY Times Op-Ed essay, Mr. McCourt wrote about his experiences teaching immigrant mothers there.^[5]

Writing

He received the Pulitzer Prize (1997) and National Book Critics Circle Award (1996) for his memoir Angela's Ashes (1996), which details his impoverished childhood in Limerick. He also authored 'Tis (1999), which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of the previous book and focusing on life as a new immigrant in America. Teacher Man (2005) detailed the challenges of being a young, uncertain teacher.

Recognition

McCourt was a member of the National Arts Club and was a recipient of the Award of Excellence from The International Center in New York. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario. That same year he was also awarded the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award.

Personal life

Frank McCourt was married first to Alberta Small, with whom he had a daughter, Margaret, and then to psychotherapist, Cheryl Ford. He lived with his third wife, Ellen Frey McCourt, in New York City and Roxbury, Connecticut. He is survived by Ellen, his daughter, Maggie, a granddaughter, Chiara, two grandsons, Frank and Jack, and his three brothers and their families.

In his free time, McCourt took up the casual sport of rowing. On one unfortunate occassion, McCourt sank his Wintech recreational single scull on the Mohawk River in New York, and had to be rescued by a local rowing team.

Death

It was announced in May 2009 that he had been treated for melanoma and that he was in remission, undergoing home chemotherapy.^[6] On 19 July 2009, he died from the cancer, with meningeal complications, at a hospice in Manhattan.^[7]

Bibliography

• Angela's Ashes (1996)
• 'Tis (1999)
• Teacher Man (2005)
• Angela and the Baby Jesus (2007)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Frank McCourt

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Frank McCourt

• Frank McCourt at the Internet Movie Database
• IrishCentral.com Exclusive: McCourt's last moments - a real Irish send-off
• Frank McCourt - Daily Telegraph obituary
• New York Times obituary
• Simonsays.com Book Club
• Write TV Public Television Interview with Frank McCourt
• Reviews of Frank McCourt's memoirs
• Teaching Secrets
• Late Author’s Younger Brother Remembers Childhood Poverty Depicted in Angela’s Ashes - video report by Democracy Now!

roger locke