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Published on 12/15/1999 All articles from this issue

Pulitzer Prize-winning author spreads 'Ashes'

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By Clyde Noel

Special to the Town Crier

Frank McCourt thought he had written a modest first book that would have a modest reception. Instead, "Angela's Ashes" earned him the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award, topped the New York Times best-seller list for months, sold more than 1.7 million copies in the United States and wound up with the Pulitzer Prize.

Before McCourt's Dec. 3 speech at the Flint Center- Foothill College Celebrity Forum in Cupertino, moderator Dick Henning said McCourt, 67, was the hottest author in the nation.

McCourt took the stage and read excerpts from "Angela's Ashes" and his newest book, "Tis."

"You only need a minimum vocabulary to read Angela's Ashes," McCourt said. "Go ahead, there aren't any big words in it."

McCourt's book was made into a movie of the same title, which is scheduled to open in theaters Christmas Day.

Born in Brooklyn, McCourt moved to Ireland at age 4 with his parents and brothers. Penniless and destitute, the McCourts made it to Limerick, where they were introduced to a collection of relatives who were as miserly as possible.

Work was scarce. And when the McCourts' father, Malachy, did have a job, he drank his wages on the way home and roused the children from sleep by singing "Kevin Barry" or other Irish songs of rebellion.

He then made the children stand like soldiers and promise to die for Ireland.

This forced his mother Angela to beg from churches and charitable organizations in order to provide for the children.

"Six children in 5 1/2 years and three died. After my mother died in 1981, I started to think about writing the book," McCourt said. "I have a duffel bag of notes that provided material for my biography."

McCourt's mother was cremated, and her ashes taken back to Ireland, leading to the book's title.

What made the book popular? "It was written from the perspective of a child, and children at that age are honest," he said. "Those with a negative reaction explain they haven't read it because it is depressing. But it's laced with humor and spirit and the human spirit overcomes poverty and ignorance."

McCourt went to a Catholic school in Limerick where students were schooled in the finer points of theology.

"The system of education was simple: 'Sit down. Shut up and start to memorize,'" he said. He left school at 14 to deliver telegrams for the post office.

At 19, McCourt returned to New York where the second book, "Tis," begins.

After talking his way into New York University, he graduated and began his 30-year teaching career, 17 of them at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

McCourt said he finished "Angela's Ashes" in one year. There are 27,000 copies of the first edition and each one is worth $650.

"If you have one of those copies, I'll buy it from you now," McCourt said.