Francis "Frank" McCourt (born 19 August 1930) is an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, best known as the author of Angela's Ashes.
Frank McCourt was born to Malachy and Angela McCourt, in Brooklyn. Unable to find work in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to their native Ireland in 1934, where they sank deeper into poverty.
McCourt's father, an alcoholic, was often without work, and drank up what little money he earned. When McCourt was eleven, his father abandoned the family leaving Frank's mother to raise four children. After quitting school at age thirteen, Frank alternated between odd jobs and petty crime in an effort to feed himself, his mother, and three surviving brothers, Malachy, Michael, and Alphonsus (Alphie). Three of the seven children died of diseases aggravated by malnutrition and the squalor of their surroundings. Frank McCourt himself nearly died of typhoid fever when he was ten. McCourt describes an entire block of houses sharing a single outhouse, ground floor dwellings flooded by constant rain, and a home infested with rats and vermin.
At the age of nineteen, he returned to the United States where, after a stint working in New York City's Biltmore Hotel, he was drafted and sent to Germany. Upon his discharge from the army, he returned to New York City where he held a series of jobs. Frustrated with his lot in life, he used the GI Bill to enroll in New York University, from which he ultimately graduated. After receiving a Masters degree from Brooklyn College in 1967, he taught English at McKee High School and Stuyvesant High School in New York City (where he joined the American Federation of Teachers). At first he had trouble teaching, because his students were unruly and disobedient. But eventually Frank McCourt became a very experienced teacher. He ended his teaching career after thirty years.
(read less)Francis "Frank" McCourt (born 19 August 1930) is an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, best known as the author of Angela's Ashes.
Frank McCourt was born to Malachy and Angela McCourt, in Brooklyn. Unable to find work in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to their native Ireland in 1934, where they sank deeper into poverty.
McCourt's father, an alcoholic, was often without work, and drank up what little money he earned. When McCourt was eleven, his...
(read more)
