Frank McCourt

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Frank McCourt at a reading in Cologne in September 2006
Frank McCourt, 2007

Francis "Frank" McCourt (born August 19, 1930 in New York City , † July 19, 2009 ibid) was an American writer of Irish descent.

Life

Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn , New York, the eldest son of an Irish immigrant family. His family returned to Ireland when he was five when his parents could not find work due to the Great Depression in New York. McCourt spent the rest of his childhood and youth in poor conditions in Catholic Limerick . His father Malachy was unemployed and often drank the stamp money . When Frank McCourt was ten years old, his father went to England to work in a factory. In 1944 he started working as a telegram boy because his father did not send any money. Frank McCourt and his mother Angela had to look after the younger siblings Malachy McCourt , Michael and Alphey.

In 1949 he had saved up the dream of his youth: the ticket back to New York. There he worked at the Biltmore Hotel and then joined the army . As a corporal , he was stationed in Bavaria for three years , mainly with the dog squad in the Lenggries Prinz Heinrich barracks. After returning home, he studied in New York and worked part-time in warehouses and on the docks to make a living. After finishing his studies, he taught at various schools as an English teacher. Most recently he was at the renowned Stuyvesant High School in New York for 15 years . There he mainly taught creative writing. Frank McCourt was married three times, his daughter Margaret is from his first marriage.

In retirement, Frank McCourt dealt with his difficult childhood and youth in the autobiographical novel My Mother's Ashes (1996). The book became an international bestseller with over 6 million copies and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1996 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 . The novel was in 1999 by Alan Parker filmed .

In An All Around Great Country , Frank McCourt recounts his experiences since returning to New York. In the third part of his memoir , day and night and also in summer , he describes his professional life as a teacher with sometimes very problematic classes.

Frank McCourt, who suffered from meningitis , died on July 19, 2009 , at the age of 78, according to his publisher Scribner, in a hospice in Manhattan , New York, of complications from metastatic melanoma .

In Limerick, Leamy's School, which McCourt once attended as a student, opened in July 2011, a Frank McCourt Museum, which was inaugurated by his brother Malachy McCourt.

In 2017 the animated short film Angela's Christmas was released, based on the children's book Angela and the Baby Jesus by McCourt. His widow, Ellen McCourt, was executive producer on the film.

Works

Participation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stationed in Lenggries according to Merkur.de , accessed on January 29, 2015
  2. ↑ BBC: Best-selling author McCourt dies
  3. ^ Frank McCourt Museum in Limerick
personal data
SURNAME McCourt, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCourt, Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 2009
Place of death Brooklyn , New York City