Limerick author Frank McCourt has died in New York at the age of 78.The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes (1996), a memoir about his childhood, passed away at a Manhattan hospice according to his brother Malachy. Frank McCourt had been gravely ill with meningitis and recently was treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents. Unable to find work in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to Ireland, where they sunk deeper into the poverty McCourt describes in Angela's Ashes. At 19, he returned to the United States and worked at odd jobs until he was drafted into the United States Army at the onset of the Korean War. On graduation from New York University, he went to work for the New York City Public School system, where he taught for the next 27 years.
After years of teaching creative writing to young people, McCourt determined to write his own life story. Angela's Ashes sold over 4 million copies, has been published in 27 countries and has been translated into 17 languages. It won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the ABBY Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. His second book, 'Tis, picked up the story of his life where Angela's Ashes left off, with his arrival in America at age 19. It shot to the top of the best-seller lists as soon as it was published. His 2005 memoir, Teacher Man, chronicled his 27-year career in the New York City school system. Like its predecessor, it was an instant bestseller. Frank McCourt died in New York City at the age of 78.
