Frank McCourt, biography of a stubborn Irishman

Frank McCourt was a writer of Irish origin, although born in New York, who He became known throughout the world thanks to his novel Angela’s ashes. It spent more than 70 weeks at the top of the list of the most read, according to the literary supplement of the New York Timesand in just three years it was made into a film and translated into more than 20 languages.

The most striking thing is that Frank McCourt was 66 years old when he decided to write it and publish it. Most of his life he had been a schoolteacher in New York secondary institutions. He worked primarily with disadvantaged youth and considered himself more of a teacher than a writer.

Frank McCourt wrote late and only four works. After publishing Angela’s ashesin 1996, published It is, in 1999. In this novel he recounted his experience as an immigrant in the United States. Later, he published his book The teacher, in which he narrates his experience as a teacher. Finally, he wrote a Christmas story called Angela and baby Jesus. All of his works were enormously successful.

Today, we delve a little deeper into the life and work of this writer who, although he was not very prolific in terms of quantity, enjoyed overwhelming recognition.

Frank McCourt’s childhood

It’s safe to say that Frank McCourt had a terrifying childhood. That was precisely the substrate that he used to write his first great work. He was born on August 19, 1930 in New York and was the result of a relationship that was considered sinful by his family environment.. His mother, Angela, became pregnant before getting married.

The father, Malachy McCourt, was an alcoholic man who, however, had an extraordinary gift for telling stories. Angela was a depressed woman obsessed with religion. The family was formed at the same time as the Great Depression in the United States.

In less than six years, Angela had seven children . Three of them died when Frank McCourt was still very young.. All of them died from diseases linked to poverty. Bad times made them decide to return to their parents’ hometown, Limerik, in Ireland. Although far from improving their situation, this decision would tragically mark their lives.

A dramatic situation

Poverty did not cease, but rather increased upon his arrival in Ireland. At that time, it was the poorest country in Europe. Frank McCourt spent a childhood full of deprivation. Eating an egg was a luxury that few could afford. She went from one place to another with her mother asking for charity from the State and taking advantage of the scraps they found.

All of this that was captured in Angela’s ashes. McCourt’s great mastery lies in having portrayed these extreme circumstances with a touch of tenderness and humor. Shortly after its publication, the author himself confessed that it had been quite a challenge to go back and remember those dramatic times.

He never fully got over the pain of those years. It is said that he was a man who always had a halo of sadness in his eyes. One of his friends said that Frank McCourt once saw a television advertisement that talked about poor children and, immediately, he began to cry for several minutes without anything comforting him.

An extraordinary success

Frank McCourt worked from the age of 13 to help his family. He also raised the money needed to leave, or perhaps flee, Ireland. He thus arrived in the United States and, shortly after, He enlisted in the army. He managed to finish his studies and became a teacher, an activity he carried out for 30 years. When he retired, he decided to give form to old writings and, in this way, his famous first novel was born.

Long before his success he had reunited with his brothers, who also traveled to the United States. So did his mother, with whom Frank had a strained relationship until she died.. His father tried to join them, but ended up looking for them in the middle of a drunken spree that ended with police intervention.

Almost a decade after his first major literary success, Frank McCourt developed skin cancer. Even so, he remained active for a long time. However, the disease caused meningitis that caused him to lose his hearing, sight and speech. He died in New York at age 78, just a month before his 79th birthday; By then he had been married three times and had two children. At the time of his death he was confined in a nursing home.

McCourt’s story borders on the tragic, but it is an example of overcoming. An example of how to make tragedy something to live with, something to endure to end up giving it shape. His work is not very extensive, but it is of great literary quality and, today, it continues to surprise us.

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