Frank McCourt

McCourt, Frank, 1930–2009, Irish-American memoirist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. When McCourt was four his immigrant family returned to Ireland. He dropped out of school at 13 and had saved enough by 19 to return to New York. He studied at New York Univ. (B.A., 1957) and Brooklyn College (M.A., 1967) and taught high-school English. After his retirement (1987) he wrote the Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir Angela's Ashes (1996, film 1999). In lyrically intense prose, McCourt tells of a childhood of grinding poverty in the slums of Limerick and his final escape. He continued his saga in 'Tis (1999) and Teacher Man (2005), and also wrote the Christmas story Angela and the Baby Jesus (2007).