36 Facts About Frank McCourt

Francis McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer.

Frank McCourt won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.

Frank McCourt was born in New York City's Brooklyn borough, on August 19,1930, the eldest child of Irish Catholic immigrants Malachy Gerald McCourt, Sr.

Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings: Malachy Jr.

Unable to find steady work in Belfast or Dublin and beset by Malachy Senior's alcoholism, the Frank McCourt family returned to their mother's native Limerick, where they sank even deeper into poverty.

Frank McCourt's father, being from the north and bearing a northern accent, found this trait to be an added stressor to finding a job.

Frank McCourt related that when he was 11, his father left Limerick to find work in the factories of wartime Coventry, England, rarely sending back money to support his family.

Frank McCourt felt obliged as a child to steal bread, milk, and lemonade in an effort to provide for his mother and three younger brothers, until relatives stepped in to aid the family.

Frank McCourt then worked for the post office delivering telegrams from age 14 to 16; then he worked for Eason's delivering magazines and newspapers, and he gave most of what he earned to his mother.

Frank McCourt saved his money and once he had saved enough to pay the fare to New York and have some money upon his arrival, he left Ireland on a freighter, at age 19.

Frank McCourt had saved money from various jobs including as a telegram delivery boy and stolen from one of his employers, a moneylender, after her death.

Frank McCourt took a boat from Cork to New York City.

Frank McCourt earned about $26 a week and sent $10 of it to his mother in Limerick.

In 1951, Frank McCourt was drafted into the US Army and sent to Bavaria for two years, initially training dogs, then working as a clerk.

Bill education benefits, Frank McCourt talked his way into New York University by explaining that he was intelligent and read a great deal; they admitted him on one year's probation provided he maintained a B average.

Frank McCourt graduated in 1957 from New York University with a bachelor's degree in English.

Frank McCourt taught at six New York schools, including McKee Vocational and Technical High School in Staten Island, New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn, Seward Park High School, Washington Irving High School, and the High School of Fashion Industries, all in Manhattan.

Frank McCourt became a regular English teacher at Stuyvesant High School after his doctoral studies.

Frank McCourt won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and one of the annual National Book Critics Circle Awards for his bestselling 1996 memoir Angela's Ashes, which details his impoverished childhood from Brooklyn to Limerick.

Frank McCourt authored 'Tis, which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of Angela's Ashes and focusing on his life after he returned to New York.

Frank McCourt subsequently wrote Teacher Man, which details his teaching experiences.

Frank McCourt was defended by Limerick socialist TD Jim Kemmy, who described Angela's Ashes as "the best book ever written about working class life in Limerick".

Frank McCourt was a member of the National Arts Club and was a recipient of the Award of Excellerhe Irish American of the Year by Irish America magazine.

In 1999, Frank McCourt received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

The Frank McCourt School is one of four small schools designated to fill the campus of the former Louis D Brandeis High School.

The downstairs of the museum housed the Dr Frank McCourt Creative Writing centre.

Frank McCourt was married first in August 1961 to Alberta Small, whom he met at NYU and with whom he had a daughter, Margaret.

Frank McCourt married a second time in November 1984 to the psychotherapist Cheryl Floyd, and they divorced in 1989.

Frank McCourt married his third wife, Ellen Frey McCourt, on August 13,1994, in Milford, Pennsylvania, five years after meeting at the Lion's Head bar in New York City.

Frank McCourt met Ellen in December 1989, when she was 35 and he was 59, retired from teaching high school.

Frank McCourt was survived by his brothers Malachy, Michael, and Alphie.

Frank McCourt's last surviving brother Malachy wrote a third memoir, Death Need Not Be Fatal, at age 85 with Brian McDonald, talking of his own life, missing his brother Frank, and life after 30 years of alcoholism had ended.

Frank McCourt's ashes were shared among his brothers, his wife, and his daughter.

Frank McCourt coordinated a mosaic painting, with parts done by many artists and visitors to the museum, marking 20 years after he won the Pulitzer Prize, hanging it in the museum she founded in his name in Limerick.

Frank McCourt's papers are at Glucksman Library in the University of Limerick.

The items from the Frank McCourt museum are now on display at the People's Museum in Limerick.