Frank McCourt - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/frank-mccourt/","20190224075637","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1550994997"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Frank McCourt - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I've proved him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools." Frank McCourt was already retired when he published his first book at age 66. Angela's Ashes, a memoir of his impoverished boyhood in Limerick, Ireland, shot to the top of the bestseller lists and remained there for over a year. Angela's Ashes won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It was still topping the paperback lists when McCourt's second book, 'Tis, hit the bookstores, and the bestseller lists. A third bestseller, Teacher Man, recounted his years teaching in the New York City public schools. "After retiring from teaching I wanted a second act, not a rocker in Florida," McCourt said. After a lifetime of helping young people find their own voices, Frank McCourt had found his own, and millions of readers found a friend to treasure."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Frank McCourt - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I've proved him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools."</p> <p class="inputText">Frank McCourt was already retired when he published his first book at age 66. <i>Angela's Ashes,</i> a memoir of his impoverished boyhood in Limerick, Ireland, shot to the top of the bestseller lists and remained there for over a year. <i>Angela's Ashes</i> won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It was still topping the paperback lists when McCourt's second book, <i>'Tis,</i> hit the bookstores, and the bestseller lists. A third bestseller, <i>Teacher Man</i>, recounted his years teaching in the New York City public schools.</p> <p class="inputText">"After retiring from teaching I wanted a second act, not a rocker in Florida," McCourt said. After a lifetime of helping young people find their own voices, Frank McCourt had found his own, and millions of readers found a friend to treasure.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mccourt-Feature-Image-2800x1120-3.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I've proved him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools."</p> <p class="inputText">Frank McCourt was already retired when he published his first book at age 66. <i>Angela's Ashes,</i> a memoir of his impoverished boyhood in Limerick, Ireland, shot to the top of the bestseller lists and remained there for over a year. <i>Angela's Ashes</i> won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It was still topping the paperback lists when McCourt's second book, <i>'Tis,</i> hit the bookstores, and the bestseller lists. A third bestseller, <i>Teacher Man</i>, recounted his years teaching in the New York City public schools.</p> <p class="inputText">"After retiring from teaching I wanted a second act, not a rocker in Florida," McCourt said. After a lifetime of helping young people find their own voices, Frank McCourt had found his own, and millions of readers found a friend to treasure.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Frank McCourt - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mccourt-Feature-Image-2800x1120-3.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190224075637\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190224075637\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190224075637\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mccourt-Feature-Image-2800x1120-3.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mccourt-Feature-Image-2800x1120-3-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Frank McCourt</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Pulitzer Prize for Biography</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2776 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-author careers-writer"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/WhatItTakes_mccourt_256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">You have to, above all, find the voice, and it took me all those years, not until I retired. But I had the material. That's the main thing. The material was circling around my head and lying there in my notebooks waiting to be tapped.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">A Writer Risen from the Ashes</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 19, 1930 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 19, 2009 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputtextfirst">Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents. Unable to find work in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to Ireland, where they sunk deeper into the poverty McCourt describes so movingly in his memoir, <i>Angela’s Ashes.</i></p> <figure id="attachment_22590" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22590 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22590 size-full lazyload" alt=""Angela's Ashes: A Memoir," the 1996 memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt. The memoir details McCourt's very early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, but focuses primarily on his life in Limerick, Ireland. It also includes McCourt's struggles with poverty and his father's alcoholism. The book was published in 1996, and won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The sequel, "'Tis," was published in 1999, followed by "Teacher Man" in 2005." width="1400" height="2024" data-sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes.jpg 1400w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes-263x380.jpg 263w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes-526x760.jpg 526w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir</em>, the 1996 memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt. The memoir details McCourt’s very early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, but focuses primarily on his life in Limerick, Ireland. It also includes McCourt’s struggles with poverty and his father’s alcoholism. The book was published in 1996, and won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The sequel, ‘<em>Tis</em>, was published in 1999, followed by <em>Teacher Man</em> in 2005.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">McCourt’s father, an alcoholic, was often without work. He drank up what little money he earned and eventually abandoned the family altogether. Three of the seven children died of diseases aggravated by malnutrition and the squalor of their surroundings. Frank McCourt himself nearly died of typhoid fever when he was ten. McCourt’s memoir describes an entire block of houses sharing a single outhouse, ground floor dwellings flooded by constant rain, a home infested with rats and vermin. Despite the horrors of McCourt’s childhood, he told his story with humor, brilliant description, and deep compassion for his family, even for the shiftless father who instilled in him a love of language and storytelling.</p> <figure id="attachment_22592" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22592 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22592 size-full lazyload" alt="At the beginning of the Korean War, Frank McCourt was drafted, at age 19." width="700" height="491" data-sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg.jpg 700w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg-380x267.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">At the beginning of the Korean War, 19-year-old Frank McCourt was drafted into the United States Army and sent on a troop ship to Hamburg, West Germany, where he would train German shepherds and later become a clerk.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">After quitting school at 13, Frank McCourt alternated between odd jobs and petty crime in an effort to feed himself, his mother, and three surviving brothers. At 19, he returned to the United States and worked at odd jobs until he was drafted into the United States Army at the onset of the Korean War. McCourt spent the war stationed in Germany and on his return to civilian life was able to pursue a college education on the G.I. Bill. He had never attended high school, but he was able to persuade the admissions office of New York University to accept him as a student.</p> <figure id="attachment_22582" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22582 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22582 size-full lazyload" alt="1983: Frank McCourt at Stuyvesant High School. McCourt "spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City’s public schools." (John Sotomayor/The New York Times)" width="600" height="360" data-sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5.jpg 600w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5-380x228.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1983: Frank McCourt teaching English class at Stuyvesant High School. Upon his return to civilian life in New York, Frank McCourt started attending New York University on the G.I. Bill — requiring him to convince the admissions office that he was qualified, even though he lacked a high school diploma. McCourt graduated from New York University’s School of Education (now the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development) in 1957 with a B.S. in English Education. After his master’s work at Brooklyn College, McCourt set out to teach English in the New York City school system, first at McKee High School on Staten Island, later, at Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan. His teaching career spanned nearly thirty years. (Photo: John Sotomayor/The New York Times)</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Although his childhood interest in language and storytelling were fed by creative writing classes and his own constant reading, he did not feel ready to pursue a career as a professional writer. On graduation, he went to work for the New York City Public School system, where he taught for the next 27 years.</p> <figure id="attachment_22591" style="width: 595px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22591 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22591 size-full lazyload" alt="Ellen and Frank McCourt." width="595" height="420" data-sizes="(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt.jpg 595w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt-380x268.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">In 1997, the University of Limerick recognized Dr. Frank McCourt’s extraordinary contribution to literature by conferring to him the Honorary Doctorate of Literature. Pictured here with his wife, Ellen, Frank McCourt was a “cultural treasure of Limerick City.” McCourt was a regular visitor who lectured there on a number of occasions.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">“I taught what they call ‘Creative Writing,’ though you and I know how hard it is to teach anyone anything,” McCourt says. “Instead of teaching writing I ‘conducted’ writing classes. I tried to show my students the significance of their own lives, which they sometimes thought insignificant. I hoped they’d realize the value of their own lives, that they were good enough to write about. So they took the plunge, and they wrote, and some were willing to read to the class, and I think they were glad they did. Then they’d say to me, ‘Why don’t you write something and read it to the class?’ And I did — more and more.”</p> <figure id="attachment_50411" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-50411 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp-2280-sheehan-mccourt-1999.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-50411 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1545" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp-2280-sheehan-mccourt-1999.jpg 2280w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp-2280-sheehan-mccourt-1999-380x258.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp-2280-sheehan-mccourt-1999-760x515.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp-2280-sheehan-mccourt-1999.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Neil Sheehan presenting the Golden Plate Award to Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Frank McCourt, at the 1999 Achievement Summit ceremonies in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Although McCourt spent his summers working on a novel drawing on his youth in Ireland, he was unable to find his own voice until he retired from teaching. After years of teaching creative writing to young people, McCourt determined to write his own life story. <i>Angela’s Ashes</i> sold over 4 million copies, has been published in 27 countries and has been translated into 17 languages. It won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the ABBY Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.</p> <figure id="attachment_50246" style="width: 1741px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-50246 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Frank-McCourt-and-Jeremy-Irons-2.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-50246 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="1741" height="1161" data-sizes="(max-width: 1741px) 100vw, 1741px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Frank-McCourt-and-Jeremy-Irons-2.jpg 1741w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Frank-McCourt-and-Jeremy-Irons-2-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Frank-McCourt-and-Jeremy-Irons-2-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Frank-McCourt-and-Jeremy-Irons-2.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Council members Frank McCourt and award-winning stage and screen actor Jeremy Irons moderated the Banquet of the Golden Plate awards ceremonies during the 2002 International Achievement Summit held in Dublin, Ireland.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">His second book, ‘<i>Tis</i>, picked up the story of his life where <i>Angela’s Ashes</i> left off, with his arrival in America at age 19. It shot to the top of the bestseller lists as soon as it was published. His 2005 memoir, <i>Teacher Man</i>, chronicled his 27-year career in the New York City school system. Like its predecessor, it was an instant bestseller. Frank McCourt died in New York City at the age of 78.</p> <figure id="attachment_22602" style="width: 927px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22602 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22602 size-full lazyload" alt=""Teacher Man" is Frank McCourt's 2005 memoir, which describes and reflects on his teaching experiences in New York high schools and colleges." width="927" height="1420" data-sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman.jpg 927w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman-248x380.jpg 248w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman-496x760.jpg 496w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>2005: Teacher Man</em> by Frank McCourt, the final memoir in the trilogy that started with <em>Angela’s Ashes </em>(1996) and continued in <em>‘Tis</em> (1999), focuses on McCourt’s 27-year teaching career in New York City’s public high schools.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1999 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.writer">Writer</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.author">Author</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 19, 1930 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 19, 2009 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I’ve proved him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools.”</p> <p class="inputText">Frank McCourt was already retired when he published his first book at age 66. <i>Angela’s Ashes,</i> a memoir of his impoverished boyhood in Limerick, Ireland, shot to the top of the bestseller lists and remained there for over a year. <i>Angela’s Ashes</i> won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It was still topping the paperback lists when McCourt’s second book, <i>‘Tis,</i> hit the bookstores, and the bestseller lists. A third bestseller, <i>Teacher Man</i>, recounted his years teaching in the New York City public schools.</p> <p class="inputText">“After retiring from teaching I wanted a second act, not a rocker in Florida,” McCourt said. After a lifetime of helping young people find their own voices, Frank McCourt had found his own, and millions of readers found a friend to treasure.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ecj211iAnlw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=3201&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_44_57_22.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_44_57_22.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">A Writer Risen from the Ashes</h2> <div class="sans-2">Washington, D.C.</div> <div class="sans-2">June 19, 1999</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What were you thinking when you came to America at the age of 19? You had grown up in dire poverty in Ireland. What were you looking for?</strong></p> <p class="inputtext">Frank McCourt: When I arrived here my condition was very poor, emotionally, psychologically, even physically. I had no self-esteem because of what I came from. No education. Everybody was saying, “Oh, you have to have a high school diploma in this country.” I couldn’t say I only went to primary school in Limerick.</p> <p class="inputtext">The minute I opened my mouth they’d say, “What you should do is join the cops.” I didn’t want to join the cops. So I didn’t know what to do with myself since I had no self-esteem. I was very angry over having no education. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to find the door into America. Here I was. I didn’t know anybody. So I was mostly alone and floundering.</p> <p class="inputtext">I had to deal with something else that people rarely talk about. It’s an ethnic story in a way. Other people come from Italy and Czechoslovakia and places like that, and they have to grapple with America, and they have to grapple with trying to master the English language as well. At least I had the language; that made it more convenient for me. But…</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22599" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22599 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22599 size-full lazyload" alt="Frank McCourt with his younger brother, Malachy McCourt." width="2280" height="1504" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy.jpg 2280w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Frank McCourt with his younger brother, Malachy. Together, they wrote the play <em>A Couple of Blaguards</em>, based on their life story. Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings: Malachy, born in 1931; twins Oliver and Eugene, born in 1932; and a younger sister, Margaret, who died just seven weeks after birth, in 1934. The twins, Oliver and Eugene, died in early childhood, and two more boys were born, Michael and Alphie.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/AN1R-q2RfSM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-Upscale-1of3.00_27_20_04.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-Upscale-1of3.00_27_20_04.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">The minute I opened my mouth then they’d say, “Oh, you’re Irish.” Suddenly I’m labeled. I wasn’t a human being. In Ireland I was just a low-class type, but here I’m a low-class Irish type, an Irish low-class type. So I didn’t know. Somehow I had to deal with that. “Oh, you’re Irish.” And at that time, that was 1949, there was still some kind of a lingering residue of prejudice against the Irish. People used to tell me, all the people, up and down New England (I’m in New York) there would be signs saying, “No Irish need apply.” And even the Irish-Americans would listen to me and they’d patronize me. I was a bit simple as if I had just come off a farm. And I knew better than that. I knew I was better than that. Irish-Americans who were running elevators and working as porters, they were looking down on me, and I knew then that I was again at the bottom of the heap.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext">I was confused most of the time. I never had anything but the dream of getting out of this.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/iaIGr8osuew?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=82&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_34_37_26.Still014-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_34_37_26.Still014-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/the-american-dream/">The American Dream</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I wanted to be something else but I didn’t know what. There was no clear-cut dream. I thought I’d like to have a job, a decent job in an office. I’d like to be in an office sitting behind a desk, pushing papers around, making little decisions about pushing papers, get out at 5:00 o’clock, meet this gorgeous girl and we’d probably get married and have two-and-a-half kids and live out in Long Island or someplace like that, and I’d go to mass every Sunday morning, be nice and warm and clean, and I’d be accepted, and I’d lose my Irish accent, and I’d sound like James Cagney. I didn’t know what to do. I read a lot. I discovered the 42nd Street Library. That’s what I did. I read and read and read voraciously and widely. Then I was liberated from this menial job I had in a hotel. I was the man with the dust pan and the broom in the lobby. I was liberated by the Chinese, who attacked Korea, and America drafted me and sent me to Germany for two years. I don’t know what I would have done if the Chinese hadn’t attacked Korea. I’m a victim of history in Ireland and I’m a beneficiary of history in America.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22594" style="width: 2160px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22594 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22594 size-full lazyload" alt="Academy member Frank McCourt chats with the Taoiseach of Ireland Bertie Ahern before the Academy of Achievement's 2002 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in Dublin, Ireland. (© Academy of Achievement)" width="2160" height="1440" data-sizes="(max-width: 2160px) 100vw, 2160px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605.jpg 2160w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2002: Academy member Frank McCourt chats with the Taoiseach of Ireland Bertie Ahern before the International Achievement Summit’s Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in Dublin, Ireland. (Academy of Achievement)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>When did you first know what you wanted to do with your life?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Well, I always wanted to write but I didn’t know how to go about it. I didn’t have the courage of certain people that you hear about. I read something about Shelby Foote recently who wrote a story for the <em>Saturday Evening Post</em> when he was 19 and that was it. He was on his way. Or other people like Scott Fitzgerald. He had a college education and so on, but I didn’t know where to begin and I didn’t know what to write. I certainly was not going to write about my experiences growing up in this slum in Ireland. Then something happened when I finally went to NYU.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/6pp1xW0bgO4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_25_53_18.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_25_53_18.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">We were asked to write about a single thing, an object in our childhood. And the object that meant most to me that was so significant was the bed I slept in with my brothers, all four of us. This half acre of a bed with a disaster of a mattress, which collapsed in the middle. Everybody peed in the bed, so the spring was gone, and we tried to keep it together with bits of string, but after a while the acid from our bodies rotted the string. We’d get into bed and we’d roll into the middle, the four of us, and fight, “Get out of my way.” Meanwhile the fleas were feasting on us. And if you had to go to the john, you went to a bucket and so on and came back. And we were — we’d light a candle to get at the — and we’d hold the candle and we’d go slapping at each other’s legs and bodies killing the fleas. That was probably the most concrete image I brought away from my childhood and I wrote about that. The professor gave me an “A+.” And I said, “Jesus, this is very strange.” And then he says, “Please read this to the class.” And I said, “No.” “Would you?” “No.” “Would you please?” I said, “No, I’d be ashamed.” And he read it. He said, “Do you mind if I read it?” So he read it to the class, and I think they sensed that I was the one who wrote it, and good-looking girls started looking at me in an interested way, but I thought they’d be — I thought they’d be disgusted. But I found myself being stalked leaving the class that day. “Is that how you grew up?” And it seemed — I seemed to suddenly have become kind of an exotic in the class. So that stuck in my head. I still wasn’t convinced that this was the material of my writing but I kept going with notebooks, and making lists of people I grew up with, the streets in Limerick, the shops, the priests and everything else. That was a turning point.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>The encouragement of that one teacher?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: That one teacher. The one in Ireland, Mr. O’Halloran, who told me I was a literary genius and this man at NYU. One little thing can change the course of your life, or can change your emotional landscape.</p> <p><strong>You taught in the New York schools for 27 years. How did you get from there to writing <em>Angela’s Ashes?</em></strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: <em>Angela’s Ashes</em> was germinating all the time, ever since that bed composition. I tried in the ’60s, around 1967, ’68. I tried to write a novel called <em>If You Live in the Lane.</em> I was talking to the kids about writing, but even though I was 38, 39 years old, I really didn’t trust myself. So I was trying to imitate. I was going through a James Joyce phase, a <em>Portrait of the Artist</em> phase, which was a little late considering he wrote <em>Portrait of the Artist</em> when he was 22.</p> <p>So here I am, at age 38 or 39, imitating Joyce, and it didn’t work. I put it away. I was teaching at Stuyvesant High School at the time.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyEPbcFLU5g?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=41&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_17_13_28.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_17_13_28.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Kids were asking me about my life, and I would dole out a few anecdotes, and they kept saying, “Oh, you should write a book. You should write a book.” And I thought I should write a book, and I was trying. And every summer I would try to write the book, and you need — you can’t do it. It’s like running a marathon. You can’t say, “Oh, I’m going to run the marathon.” You have to, nine months in advance at least, start training. And it’s the same thing with writing. You have to get the rhythms, and you have to, above all, find the voice, and it took me all those years, not until I retired. But I had the material. That’s the main thing. The material was circling around my head and lying there in my notebooks waiting to be tapped.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_11073" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-11073 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-11073 size-full lazyload" alt="Poet W. S. Merwin and memoirist Frank McCourt at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586.jpg 2280w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2008 Academy honoree and poet W.S. Merwin, with Frank McCourt, at the American Academy of Achievement’s Banquet of the Golden Plate during the 2008 International Achievement Summit held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>How do you find your own unique, distinctive voice?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: In the case of <em>Angela’s Ashes</em> it was almost an accident.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bv_Wo-q4Q00?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_12_41_28.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_12_41_28.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I wish I could say again that I was like James Joyce, who worked things out, or Hemingway, who just sculpted those sentences. For me, it was my method of writing that led me to it. Sitting with a notebook and a pen writing on the right-hand page whatever story I wanted to tell, and making notes on the left-hand page about ideas coming to me for future reference. And I wrote 19 or 20 pages of <i>Angela’s Ashes,</i> which is in the past tense, describing my mother and father coming to New York. And on the left page I wrote one day — I knew the next day I wanted to get to my earliest memories and start my story. My story. And I wrote, “I’m in a playground on Claussen Avenue in Brooklyn with my brother Malachy. He’s two. I’m three. We’re on the seesaw. He goes up. I go down. He goes up. I go down. I get off. Malachy comes down, crashes, bites his tongue and there’s blood.” That was my earliest memory. And the next day I picked that up in the present tense with the perspective of the three-year-old, me, and it felt comfortable and I continued that way. I just — it was a glove that I put on.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22587" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22587 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22587 size-full lazyload" alt="Frank McCourt and his wife, Ellen, chatting with an Academy student delegate during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452.jpg 2280w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Frank McCourt and his wife, Ellen, chatting with an Academy delegate at a reception during the 2008 Summit.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>How do you handle success?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Success! I’m almost somebody on an assembly line now.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/1GNF7AVyvZI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_44_10_17.Still017-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_44_10_17.Still017-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I didn’t know <i>Angela’s Ashes</i> would be successful, and if it hadn’t sold the way it did, it hadn’t brought me all these prizes and so on, I would have gone back to teaching. But the book would have been written. It would be on the bookshelves. It would be — it would have its Library of Congress catalogue number and I would have been satisfied. I would have been profoundly satisfied, and I would have gone back to teaching, and that would have given me such satisfaction, too. I’d stay there till I died. I’d be in front of the class some day talking about dangling participles, and I’d get an aneurysm and keel over, and they’d take me out feet first. A warrior, a pedagogical warrior!</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext">But that didn’t happen. It sold more than the 27,000 copies, and it sold, and sold, and sold, and I got the prizes. And then…</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/aOGTRXFJCRw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_52_25_19.Still020-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_52_25_19.Still020-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I realized that I hadn’t finished my story. I had brought it up to the age of 19, but what I wanted to show was, I think, the effects of that childhood, the poverty and the religion, and everything else on a young man coming to New York. What it does to your self-esteem, how I was damaged and also how I benefited from it. Because no matter what I say about the poverty, there was a richness. No matter what I said about the church, there was a richness in that religious experience. If we hadn’t had the church, the architecture, which was Neo-Gothic or Neo-Byzantine — I don’t know what the hell it was. But there was the liturgy, the Latin, the ceremonial, the sense of mystery, the sense of awe, the sense of wonder, and the power, the art, the duplicated paintings of the stations of the cross, all of that.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext">So I realized when I finished <i>Angela’s Ashes</i>…</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22596" style="width: 1936px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22596 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22596 size-full lazyload" alt="Frank McCourt's 1999 memoir, "'Tis," begins where McCourt ended "Angela's Ashes," his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his impoverished childhood in Ireland and his return to America." width="1936" height="2833" data-sizes="(max-width: 1936px) 100vw, 1936px" data-srcset="/web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi.jpg 1936w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi-260x380.jpg 260w, /web/20190224075637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi-519x760.jpg 519w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Frank McCourt’s 1999 memoir, ‘<em>Tis</em>, begins where <em>Angela’s Ashes </em>ends<em>.</em> ‘<em>Tis</em> picks up the story in October 1949, upon his arrival in America, and through his journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and storyteller.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190224075637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/WfGi2TiuwQM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_18_44_21.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/McCourt-Frank-1999-MasterEdit.00_18_44_21.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/the-american-dream/">The American Dream</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I had to show what happened to this young man, me, who I hope would be a prototype for all immigrants. What happened to me. How I made my way through New York, which is a fearful place to get through, and how accidentally certain things happened, and how I made certain things happen. That’s kind of a balance. Some things happen to you. I made certain decisions. I made a decision that I wasn’t going to be a cop, that I wasn’t going to be a bartender. That I wasn’t going to stay in some menial job for the rest of my — because of my anger. I’m better than this. And most people know they’re better than that. So I had to go to college. I was saved, as I said, by the Chinese attacking Korea and then getting the GI Bill when I got out of the Army. This story, how all of these things happened to me, is the story of the next book, which is called <i>‘Tis.</i></p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You’ve certainly addressed this question in your first book, but to begin with, what was your childhood like?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: It was rich in the sense that, even though we were poor, at the lowest level, even below the lowest economic level, we were always excited. It was rich in the sense that we had a lot to look up to, to look forward to, a lot to aspire to, a lot to dream about. But in economic circumstances it was desperate. It was Calcutta with rain. At least they’re warm in Calcutta. But it was desperate because of certain things, ingredients like my father being an alcoholic, my mother having too many babies in too short a time, no work available in Ireland, and even when my father did get a job he drank the wages. Then there was the harsh kind of schooling we had with school masters who ruled with a stick and then because of the overwhelming presence of the church, which imbued us with fear all the time. So it was fear, dampness, poverty, alcoholism, fear of the church, fear of the school masters, fear in general.</p> <p>But at the same time when we got out of school, when we were away from the church, when we were out of the house, we were on the streets and we were always excited. And when you have nothing little things become very precious, like books. There was an occasional book that came into our house and we just devoured it. In that sense it was very rich.</p> <p><strong>Were there specific books that were important to you as a young person? Books that inspired you or influenced you in some way?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I think the first book that I ever read was <em>Tom Brown’s School Days</em>, which my mother bought for me at Woolworth’s in Limerick for sixpence. One of those pulp—cheap pulp books. And I treasured that. And then occasionally other books came into our area but we couldn’t just go out and buy books and there was not a library for children. There was a Carnegie library for adults. But we didn’t have books. So when <em>Huckleberry Finn</em> came in I — I wanted to be Tom Sawyer. I wanted to go down to the river Shannon and stand at the banks of the river, and did, and dreamed it might be the Mississippi, and I’d get a raft and off I’d go 60 miles out to sea. And I wanted to be free like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.</p> <p>But these were the books that made a big impression on me. The main literature in our lives was the literature of the church: the Sunday missal and the lives of the saints. Since books were so scarce I can remember all of them, even the look of them and the smell of them.</p> <p><strong>Did that make them all the more precious?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Oh yeah, everything was precious. I remember a loaf of bread that was precious because it was so little. My mother would bring home what they called a Vienna loaf. I remember one particular loaf of bread when we were so hungry. I can still taste it. So poverty does make things precious. It turns everything into jewelry.</p> <p><strong>What about teachers? In the midst of that harsh schooling are there teachers who influenced you or opened up possibilities for you?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: They didn’t have the human touch that American teachers have, I think, but they did other things and they ruled in a way. They had style. When I get together with my people my own age and talk about Leamy’s National School, we can still talk about all the teachers, how distinctive they were, from the first teacher, Tom Scallon, who taught the first grade. At the end of every day Tom Scallon became the music teacher. He’d stand us up and we’d sing in Irish and English and Latin. He had a way of teaching that was fairly brutal but still very musical, and he taught us all the Irish ballads, and some American stuff, and Gregorian or plain chant.</p> <p>The last teacher I had was a man named O’Halloran. But he was the only one who offered words of encouragement, who told us we were distinct, unique individuals with a right to think for ourselves. And that was just before we left Leamy’s National School. And he told me, “My boy, you are a literary genius.” And you can imagine what I had to put up with at the schoolyard with all the others. “Hey, McCourt, you’re a literary genius. Look at him. Look at the literary genius.” But it wasn’t negative. It was just teasing. But they respected him and they respected me for being picked out by Mr. O’Halloran.</p> <p><strong>Were you a good student?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I was, I suppose, because there was no choice. They’d beat the hell out of you if you didn’t do your work. Some of us were quicker than others. Some kids were very slow and they suffered from it because the masters would get irritable. They wanted you to know, and if you didn’t know, if you didn’t comprehend, they would haul you out of your seat and knock you around the room, which is not advanced pedagogy.</p> <p><strong>What did you do to earn this label of literary genius at such a young age?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I think I was always attracted to writing. I always wanted to write because for me it was magic to get a piece of paper and put words on it. As I’m always saying, to put together words that were never before put together by anybody. To take two words that were never joined together like a “scintillating turnip.” I would put words together like that just to keep the language fresh. When I was nine or ten I was trying to write a detective novel, an English detective novel, set in London, which I had never seen. All I knew about London was what I read in English detective novels. So I was always up to something like that, and writing little playlets that I’d make my brothers act in.</p> <p>I wrote one play about how my youngest brother, Alfie was lost. He was only one, and there was a nail on the wall, and we hung him on that nail by the back of his shirt, and then we forgot about him. My mother came home and she says, “Where’s the child?” And we couldn’t remember. -“Where did you put him?” We couldn’t remember and we found him hanging on the wall. I think he’s been damaged by that ever since. But I would go on writing stuff like this.</p> <p>In school if they told me write an essay of 150 words I’d write 500 words, so the masters said, “Stop, McCourt. Stop. That’s enough. Stop.” And then they might read it to the class and then, of course, I’d be teased again in the schoolyard. “For Jesus sake, McCourt, will you stop writing? We have to listen to it.”</p> <p>Mr. O’Halloran used to take my compositions home and read them to his kids who went to private school. I was always scribbling.</p> <p><strong>So despite the poverty, despite the hardships, education was an important part of your life.</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Oh, yeah. That was the elementary school, primary school. They made it important. But at the same time we knew — being in the school we were in, Leamy’s National School — that after the eighth grade we were finished. School was mandatory until you were 14. We were not going to high school, secondary school. We would become messenger boys or unemployed, or roam the streets, or somehow get to England.</p> <p><strong>Why?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: We were considered the hewers of wood and the haulers of water. Our schooling ended at 14. We came out of the slums. People who came out of the slums were not expected to go to secondary school because I went to what they called a national school, which is a government school. And there was no expectation. We couldn’t afford to go on to secondary school anyway. I couldn’t have afforded the books or the clothes. We didn’t have the clothes. A lot of the kids were barefoot and we all — you know, I wore the shirt I went to bed in, the shirt that I wore all day, and wore it the next day until it fell off my back. So when you went to secondary school you were expected to come mainly from the middle class or the upper working class. We belonged to none of those classes.</p> <p><strong>So you left school when you were 14?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Yeah, I was actually 13 when I was finished.</p> <p><strong>What did a 13-year-old do?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: A 13-year-old waited until he was 14 and then I got a job at the post office delivering telegrams. You had to take kind of a test to get into the post office for what they call a temporary telegram boy and then you could later go to school and get the permanent telegram boy job. And if you got that, then later on you could become a postman and maybe a clerk in the post office selling stamps and maybe rise in the ranks and become an inspector. Well I went in at 14 and I delivered telegrams for two years. I knocked on every door in Limerick. The population of Limerick at that time was about 55,000. So I think I knocked on every door in Limerick, threw telegrams in the window, under the door, everything, was attacked by dogs and irate people who didn’t get the telegram they wanted. They’d attack you literally.</p> <p>A lot of the women in Limerick were widows from the British Army. They used to get pension payments and if you brought a telegram from somebody else wishing them “Merry Christmas” or something like that, and it wasn’t a telegram from the British Army, they’d attack you because they were so frustrated waiting for the money. They’d take one look at it and then look at you and then you knew the attack was coming. So you’d run down the path and hop on the bike. So I became a psychologist; I could see anger coming.</p> <p>I did that for two years, and then I was encouraged to take the exam for permanent telegram boy and the morning came and my mother wanted me to do it so that I would have a bigger income and security and the pension, and I’d get a uniform. As a temporary you didn’t get any uniforms and we were out in all kinds of weather just with a jacket on or a sweater. Pouring rain, we were always wet. I don’t know why I didn’t die of TB.</p> <p>The morning of the exam I went down to the building. The headquarters was in something called the LPYMA, Limerick Protestant Young Men’s Association. I went as far as the steps to go in. I was handing the man my form, and I drew back. He said, “Are you coming in or what?” And I said, “No. No.” And I went home.</p> <p>I hung around for a while before I went home. I wanted my mother to think I took the exam, but she found out that I hadn’t taken it and she was furious. But it was the right decision, because three years I went to America.</p> <p><strong>What influence did your parents have on you?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: My father was an alcoholic. By day, when he wasn’t drinking, he was the perfect father. When he’d get money then he was a maniac. He was two different men. I know this is a racial generalization but it was typical.</p> <p>The country was so inhibited emotionally, I think, because of the church and because of the traumas that arose out of history, like the potato famine. The people had gone into themselves and it wasn’t like that in the old days, way back in Medieval Ireland when they sang and danced in a wild orgiastic way. In my generation and the generations before me, the people had gone inward.</p> <p>So my father would sit by the fire and read the paper. He was very laconic but at the same time he would tell us stories and teach us songs. My mother was depressed because she had lost three children, but we learned song from them and we learned storytelling.</p> <p>My mother was always amused by my father. He had a laconic sense of humor, and she was a good storyteller too, because she’d go to the movies and we couldn’t go. We didn’t have the money. She’d come home and tell us the whole movie frame by frame. She went to see a movie once called <em>Reap the Wild Wind</em> with Paulette Goddard and John Wayne who was a bad guy in there, and Ray Milland, and she told us every line of that and we sat around the fire. I remember that fire, looking into the flames darting and leaping, and she’s telling the story and we’re having tea. So this is what we got from them. No television. There was no television. No. We had none of that. We had no electricity so we couldn’t have anything. But there was always this stuff going on between us at home and in the streets and with the neighbors. That was rich.</p> <p>But then my father would ruin the whole thing with his drinking. He really drove my mother to the wall. He drove her into a nearly fatal depression with the drinking. If he got a job and he was paid on Friday night, there was kind of a dramatic element to this.</p> <p>The men got out of work, out of the factories and the timber yards and the cement factories at 5:30. They would come home on Friday night, most of them, wash themselves to here, from here to here, never below. No, people didn’t touch themselves with water from one end of the year to the other. They’d come home, wash their hands, throw water on their faces, have their Friday night tea, which was an egg because it was Friday, and then the women would give the price of a few pints and they’d go out and they’d have a few pints, talk, sing a few songs, come home, have tea, go to bed, and go to work the next morning. Five thirty, they were out. By six o’clock most of them were home for that wash and their tea. The Angelus would ring all over Limerick in all the churches and the women would wait, but my mother would wait on tenterhooks. If he wasn’t home by 6:00 o’clock, boom, boom, bong, bong all around the city. If he wasn’t home by the time the Angelus rang, he wasn’t coming home and then she’d sink deeper and deeper into the chair by the fire, because we knew then the wages were gone and he’d arrive home after the pubs were closed, roaring and singing down the lane, “Roddy McCorley Goes to Die,” and all the patriotic songs. He grieved over Ireland and didn’t care if we starved to death that night and the next day. So that was the atmosphere I grew up in.</p> <p><strong>As a child you almost died of typhoid.</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I had typhoid. Yeah, because there was a lavatory that we all shared in this lane. All the families came and emptied their buckets. They used the bucket in the house, in the bedroom, for everything, and then emptied it into this lavatory. And it would overflow and there was waste, dirt, pee, piss, excrement everywhere. Flies, rats, everything coming to — were attracted to this lavatory. And our door would be open and our door was catty corner with the door of this lavatory. We could hear them coming. We’d say, “Oh, God, shut the door. Shut the door. Bonnie Sexton is coming with her bucket.” And she had the worst bucket in the lane. We became connoisseurs of the stink. So the flies would go in there, and they’d come in and they’d settle on the sugar bowl that we had. When we had jam, they’d be lapping at the jam, and I got typhoid fever out of it. And in those days they didn’t have the medicines, or if they had them they weren’t available to the likes of me. So I spent three-and-a-half months in the hospital in the summer, which nearly killed me.</p> <p>If you’re going to get sick, when you’re a kid, you want to be sick during the school year. I was very bitter to have to spend the summer in the hospital: June, July, August, September and into the middle of October.</p> <p><strong>Did it ever occur to you that this was the makings of some epic tale?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Oh, no. Far from it. We were all ashamed of this. You didn’t go out into the world announcing that you came from some slum. You don’t find kids from the ghettos and the slums bragging about what they came from.</p> <p>I remember reading James Baldwin talking about his mother fighting the cockroaches, trying to keep the kitchen clean, trying to keep things growing up in Harlem, and I said, “That’s it. This man understands,” because you read so little about poverty in American literature or any other literature. There was Dickens, I know, but Dickens — I became suspicious of him because he had all those happy endings. I wish Oliver Twist had died of TB, or David Copperfield. That used to piss me off when they’re all — they all found out they were related to somebody in the Royal Family or some damn thing. So when I came across Baldwin and George Orwell’s book <em>Down and Out in Paris and London</em> and another one called<em> The Road to Wigan Pier</em>, they had — he knew. He knew the details, the stink of poverty.</p> <p>So when I was growing up I wasn’t particularly proud of it. None of us were when we finally left. Even around Limerick, if we wandered out of our lane, we went into other areas, more prosperous areas of Limerick,</p> <p>We didn’t want to look like we came from the lane, but you could spot us a mile away. The urchins from the lanes. We had that look. You see kids roaming the big cities, in New York, in America, the inner cities as they say. You see bands of kids and you know. You know where they came from. You can spot them. They’re roaming around. And you look at some of them, they don’t want to be there, they want to be someplace else. They want to be a part of what they’re walking through, the fine streets and the broad avenues. And that’s the way I felt. I didn’t want to be detected as a slum kid, but there was no choice. We had no clothes. We didn’t have clothes. So when I came to New York I tried to pass myself off as middle class. I even tried to affect an American accent. It didn’t work. I tried some days. Even nowadays my wife falls on the floor laughing at my attempt at an American accent. So we all wanted to sound like James Cagney.</p> <p>But we didn’t want to tell anybody what we came from because we were ashamed of it. And concurrent with shame is anger. When we joked around about this in New York, my brothers and I, my mother would say, “Will you stop talking about that? That’s the past.” Eventually we got over the shame and we started talking about it. It took me a long time and then I started writing about it in my notebooks and that led to <em>Angela’s Ashes</em> a long time later on.</p> <p><strong>In this story of triumph over poverty and hardship, there is still humor and compassion. What is the importance of humor and compassion in your story?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I think if you talk to anybody who has come out of adverse circumstances they’ll tell you that humor keeps you going. That’s the way it was in the lanes and the slums of Limerick. As poor as people were, they sang, they told their stories, and they laughed. They laughed over the neighbors. Limerick, Ireland, has been called an open air lunatic asylum. People wander the streets of Limerick who are, you know, a bit daft. In America they’d be locked up in a minute.</p> <p>And then we would imitate the teachers. We would go home from mass on Sundays, and if there was a particularly powerful sermon by a Redemptorist preacher, you’d always find me up on a chair giving a sermon and my mother would say, “Would you get down, you old eedjit!” But sometimes she would sit there looking and laughing.</p> <p>We’d come home from school imitating the school masters. We’d imitate policemen, bureaucrats giving out the welfare down at the dispensary. We imitated and made fun of everybody and even ourselves. We’d tease each other. I remember laughing in a way in Ireland that I’ve never laughed since.</p> <p>We’d go up the road, we urchins, and swim in the Shannon. We’d tell each other stories or carry on and literally fall on the ground laughing. There was this excitement and the sense of joy in life, with our low expectations. We were satisfied with a slice of bread and jam. That’s it. We didn’t know it, but humor was one of the things that was keeping us going.</p> <p>I’ve heard that even in the concentration camps they would put on little playlets in these huts, mimicking the guards and so on. If you don’t have it, if you don’t have that particular chemical, you’re dead.</p> <p><strong>After coming to America, you served in the U.S. Army and went to college on the GI Bill. You went into teaching. Was that your plan?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Yeah, I went into teaching. My dream existence would have been to have a loft or a small place in the Village, and to write there, and to hook up with a ballerina. I wanted to live with a ballerina because I imagined all kinds of wild physical things. We’d have this loft, and she’d go off with Balanchine every day and do her steps and she’d come back in the evening and we’d have wine. Wine, cheese and an apple, and fine bread, and then we’d just go at it on the floor of the studio, and she’d do fantastic things with her legs.</p> <p><strong>That didn’t happen.</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: That didn’t happen. I became a teacher, in a very rough school. There was no lolling about the floor. It was getting up in the morning at 6:30 to take the ferry to Staten Island to McKee Vocational High School, and to go into a class — five classes of tough kids who were not a bit interested in what I had to say, so I had to hook them, and I was thrown into this. As I told you before, I had no high school education myself. I had never been in a high school so I had to — I was — nobody told me what to do. They just threw me into the classroom and here I was in front of these American teenagers who were a species from another world from me.</p> <p><strong>What did you learn from that experience?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I learned to drop the mask. I went into the classroom as — my only models were Irish school masters and I thought I’d go in there and I’d roar at the kids in McKee Vocational High School the way the masters roared at us. It didn’t work. “Yo, Teach, why you talking like that?” And they were talking to me. I’m the school master, “Yo, Teach,” and I had to stop this. I had to find some other way of dealing with the kids, of running the classes, and I found eventually the only way to deal with them was to be honest, to just try to get to them. I didn’t know how. I found it very difficult to even deal with people on a one to one basis because we put up so many defenses when we were kids. And we were so angry all the time that even in the one-to-one situation in New York, if somebody disagreed with me, it got my Irish up so to speak, and I’d get angry. I couldn’t realize that this is a person who just wanted to discuss something. I thought they were opposing me and that would lead to fisticuffs. “Would you like to step outside?” So it took me a long, long time to get over that. And it was only through the teaching I learned to put this anger aside and not to take it personally when the kids would erupt. You know, when you have 150 or 170 high school kids every day there will be eruptions, and they get angry and they direct it at the teacher, but it’s not at the teacher. It’s something they brought from home. You know, you can get all psychological about this, but I learned not to take it personally. I learned not to be quite impassive over it, but to understand what was happening in the classroom. That was the beginning of my education.</p> <p><strong>You learned from these kids?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: All the years that I was teaching I was learning. That was the main thing in my life, I think. I became a human being in front of those classes, because I wasn’t. I was kind of a stick of dynamite when I came to New York, and when I started all this teaching. But over the years — in McKee, the years at Seward Park High School down in the lower east side of Manhattan, then especially the 18 years at Stuyvesant High School — that was my university, and boy, I’m a late bloomer. It took me a long time to come to grips with myself, never mind the kids, but I learned from that.</p> <p>I think, in many ways they were more mature than I was, these American teenagers, because when I was 19 my mental age was about 11. That’s what I brought with me from Ireland, the baggage, and the fear, and the anger.</p> <p><strong>What were you hoping to accomplish as a teacher?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I didn’t know in the beginning what I wanted to accomplish. I had to work things out for myself because nobody was telling me. I wasn’t particularly intellectual, I think I moved a lot by instinct, and then a hint at intellect came along after it. I worked out this equation: What am I doing in the classroom? And I wanted to move the kids from what I call “From F to F: from Fear to Freedom.” And I would explain most of us are fearful of something or other. So if I accomplished anything in the class, it was to help the kids to think for themselves, because we had never been encouraged to think for ourselves. We were told we were worthless. The only thing for us to do was behave ourselves, observe the edicts or the pronouncements of the Catholic Church so we could go up to heaven. But eventually I knew the kids lived in a state of fear. Over what? You know, being teenagers, worried about their looks, worried about their popularity with the opposite sex, worried about their future, and I wanted to try to help them think for yourself.</p> <p>That was a dangerous thing to do, especially at Stuyvesant High School because parents had already imposed their expectations on the kids. “I want you to go to MIT. I want you to go to Harvard.” A lot of kids didn’t want to do that.</p> <p>I had one kid who wanted to be a classical guitarist. His father said, “Not on my nickel. You’re going to Boston University and you’re going to be an accountant.” And he came to me and he said, “What do I do?” I said, “Who’s paying for the college?” “He is.” “All right. You could tell your father take a running jump and go off and take your chances at the world.” And his father said, “You could be a guitarist on the side. Do it on the weekends, but you’re not going to study music on my nickel.” So he went to Boston and became an accountant. That’s the fear.</p> <p>I realized the impulse of the parents, how they want their kids to be secure and everything. I realized that, and I realized the romantic dreams of the kids, which were not romantic, they were real dreams, because I had them myself. How do you steer a middle course between the parents and the kids? You have to be careful that you don’t turn kids against parents or parents against kids. So I had to organize this and try all the time to present both sides of the story. That was my main learning experience, and that’s why I don’t take any extreme.</p> <p>I used to think I was a Democrat, now I’m more independent. I don’t have the energy for one “ism,” to be on one side or the other. If I’m crossing the street, it’s easier for me to look both ways, because if you look just one way you’re liable to get killed. So I go my own way as far as religion is concerned, or politics or anything else. It’s the predictability of a Democratic position or a Republican position that bores the hell out of me. I learned all this because of my particular predicament as a teacher, finding the middle way and having compassion for both sides.</p> <p><strong>When you started teaching in New York, did you think this was going to be your life, your career?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: No, I didn’t. Especially in the beginning at McKee Vocational, a technical high school where they nearly killed me. Before that I had worked in warehouses, I had worked on the docks, I had done all kinds of physical work, but I was never so exhausted as I was after a day at McKee High School. I used to go home and throw myself on the floor without benefit of pillow and lie there for two hours to physically and emotionally recover, and I dreaded going in the next day. But something happened.</p> <p>One morning I was taking the train from Brooklyn into Manhattan, where I got the ferry to go out to Staten Island, and I was getting off the train at Whitehall Street, stepping off the train and on to the platform, and this thought came into my head, “You could decide today to be happy. You could just make a decision, instead of going in fear and trembling into the classroom.” Now it’s easy to say that, and it doesn’t always work, but I realized that I was resisting some kind of gloom, gravity, that most of us, most of the time, we look on the dark side, I think, but you have to work at lifting yourself up but I tried it that day. It was the beginning of that kind of practice.</p> <p>Then I realized, “If you don’t enjoy yourself in the classroom, get out.” It would have been easier to do what my three brothers did, go into the bar business. Go up there and meet glamorous men and beautiful women on the East Side and stay out all night drinking and have brunch with some long-legged creature from Boston. No. I thought of that but then I thought of the kids in the classroom, and there was something more appealing about that. And besides I wanted to get through. I wanted to get through to them and I wanted things to click, and sometimes in the — there’s something that happens in a classroom that I know actors experience and artists, in general. There’s some time when you make a breakthrough, and some light goes on. One day in McKee I made a breakthrough of some kind, and for me there was kind of a white blazing light in the room and I went, “Jesus, this is absolutely orgasmic in an intellectual and emotional sense.”</p> <p>We were dealing with a poem and it was called—the poem was called “My Papa’s Waltz.” You’re always telling the kids, “Look for the deeper meaning,” and then there would be a test. But I said to the kids, “Let’s get inside the poem. What’s going on in here?” And there was an explosion for me at that moment because we were doing it together. I wasn’t a teacher anymore, as in “I know everything and you’re just out there. I tell you what you need to know.” Instead I said, “You tell me what’s happening. Tell me what’s going on in here.” That was a turning point that colored my whole teaching career.</p> <p><strong>So at some point it became more than a job?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: It had to be more than a job, because as Dylan Thomas said, “A job is death without dignity.” And I didn’t want that kind of life. I had to go into the classroom and enjoy myself. And I’d say to the kids every September, “By the end of this term there’s one person in this class who will have learned something, and that will be me.” And I have to enjoy myself. I told them, “I have to enjoy myself here. I have to do it. You’ll be graduating and I’ll still be here and I’m not going to wither on the vine. I’m not going to be old Mr. Chips. I’m going to swing.”</p> <p><strong>You taught for 27 years. Your first book wasn’t published until you were in your mid-60s. How hard was it to get your voice heard, to be published?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: I had no problem. When I was writing the first 150 pages I didn’t know what I was going to do with it but I had to write it anyway. I had to get it out of my system. Then I met a friend at a lunch, Mary Breasted, who used to be a reporter for the <em>New York Times,</em> and she’s a novelist. She asked me what I was writing and I told her I was writing this memoir. She said, “Let me see it.” I said, “No, no, no. You wouldn’t — it’s too — it’s just misery.” She demanded it and she liked it, and she showed it to her agent, Molly Friedrich.</p> <p>She said to Molly, “You have to read this.” Molly said, “What is it about?” “Miserable childhood in Ireland.” “No, no, no, we have enough of that.” “Read it,” says Mary. Molly read it. Then Molly called Nan Graham at Scribner. “What is it about?” “A miserable childhood.” “No, no, no.” “Read it,” says Molly. So Nan read it. And then the next thing, they bought it. There were only 150 pages. That was in July 1995.</p> <p>Nan said to me, “When will it be finished?” And I said “November 30th.” And she said, “November 30th, why?” I said, “It’s Jonathan Swift’s birthday.” This was a bit arrogant of me: from July to November I was going to write another 250 pages or so! But I did. I finished it by November 30th and I wrote the last word, which is “Tic.”</p> <p>My wife Ellen was at work. I said, “I’d like you to come home directly. I want you to be here when I write the last word.” So she came in. We sat down at the coffee table. I wrote the last word and we broke open a bottle of champagne. She was there to see the last word.</p> <p>The next day I took copies to my agent, Molly, and my editor, Nan. And I had promised myself if I ever delivered a book like that I’d go to the nearest Irish pub and have two pints of Guinness. When I went to Molly’s office, she had champagne so we had champagne. When I went to Nan’s office, she had champagne so I had champagne. Then I went to the Fiddler’s Green on 46th Street, I think, and had two pints of Guinness. When I got home I could hardly find the lock for the key.</p> <p><strong>In your wildest dreams could you have imagined what happened next?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: No. It is beyond the capacity of any screenwriter or novelist to imagine what has happened to me in my 60s. So I’m the beacon of hope for the whole Social Security set.</p> <p>I used to go to a bar called the Lion’s Head down in Greenwich Village and people like Pete Hamill and Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin would come in there. They were publishing books and writing newspaper columns and I was only a teacher.</p> <p>There was a hall — there were framed book jackets of all the people in there who had written, and the place was swarming with writers. And I had one dream: to have my book jacket framed on that wall. And then the Lion’s Head is closed now. It closed in October of ’96. A couple of months before that. A month before that maybe. Mike Riordan, the owner, he called me and he said, “Come down for a drink.” I said, “Mike, I’m—” “Come down for a drink,” he said. So I went down and I sat at — it’s in the afternoon. He said, “What will you have? Is there anything you’d like?” I said, “What’s — why did I suddenly become this — ” I thought they were generous. “Anything you like.” I said, “Well, I’ll have a Bushmill’s, a Black Bushmill’s.” So I had one and he said, “Cheers.” Then he said, “Turn around.” And I turned around and there was my framed book jacket. That was it. That was — for me, that was the Nobel Prize. To be on the wall of the Lion’s Head just before it closed.</p> <p>As soon as I do anything, the publication or the pub closes down. If I send a short story to a magazine, they publish it and then they go out of business. But not in this case, not in the case of <em>Angela’s Ashes.</em></p> <p><strong>What do you know now about achievement now that you didn’t know when you were younger?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: My dream has been fulfilled: to have come to this country, to have taught. The day I retired from teaching, again, was one of the most satisfying days of my life and it was sad, but when I — the day I retired, I went home and I was by myself and I was having a glass of wine. I was thinking about the lunch the teachers gave me that day. The retirement lunch. And I was able to look back on that life, that 30 years in the classroom, and say — I was able to congratulate myself. I’m glad I did that. That was good. I felt useful, that I don’t think I would have felt if I had gone into business or something like that. So that was — that was that deep satisfaction that I had, that I had followed some kind of a daily — what would you call it? — discipline. And I was dealing with kids, and I hope that I had been of some use, of some help. You never know. But they’ve told me. I meet the kids, former students, and they tell me that I was of help. So that and publishing the book. What more can a man ask for?</p> <p><strong>Is that what the American Dream means to you?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: This is it. For me it’s beyond the American Dream. I think if there’s another place that’s even better than America, maybe heaven or something, I’ve gone beyond it.</p> <p>So that I could be in a state of paralysis — ecstatic paralysis. But now I know that I have to write another book. Now I know I’m not finished with the schools, that I’m not finished with kids, that I’m not finished with teachers. That goes on and that’s — if I have any mission left, it’s going around talking about the kids and teachers and schools in general.</p> <p><strong>If you had to, could you say what it took to transcend your circumstances? To get from where you were to where you are today?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: First of all, I had to overcome the anger, because the anger was paralyzing. I think a lot of the kids knew that. They helped dissipate the anger. They gave me a break. I was kind of an exotic with this accent, from Ireland. Once I dropped the mask, then they were cooperative and I stopped being a phony. That helped me transcend the anger, and the shame and everything else so that I became a teacher in the classroom instead of somebody preaching at the kids. That was the transcendent experience, so that I was able to find myself.</p> <p>In that sense I was very lucky. You know how, in the corporate world, everybody is putting on an act all the time? If I had gone into anything else, I would have been dead in five years. I would have had ulcers. I would have been out the window. But I was with kids, and they demand honesty. They know when you’re telling them lies and you can’t sustain the lie with them, or the hypocrisy. The teacher was shaped by the kids. Maybe I taught them something in return, but they shaped me.</p> <p><strong>Is there anything you haven’t had a chance to say that you think kids ought to hear?</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Everybody says follow your dream, or Joseph Campbell would say, “Follow your bliss.” You have to. If it’s deep enough, and authentic and profound and genuine, that’s where you have to go. If you want to put on the collar of a clergyman, go and put it on. If you want to be a barefooted monk in the Himalayas, that’s what you have to do. If you want to be a housewife, that’s what you have to do. Because nature — I know, I found out eventually why I was put on this earth. I was put on this earth to write. And as Thomas Carlyle said, “Happy is the man who has found his work.” So I’m happy, and I hope everybody else finds that, too.</p> <p><strong>Thank you. That was terrific.</strong></p> <p>Frank McCourt: Thank you.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Frank McCourt Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>25 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.598" title="(L to R) President Bill Clinton, Catherine B. Reynolds, Bono, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, and Frank McCourt at the 2002 International Achievement Summit in Dublin. (© Academy of Achievement" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - (L to R) President Bill Clinton, Catherine B. Reynolds, Bono, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, and Frank McCourt at the 2002 International Achievement Summit in Dublin. (© Academy of Achievement">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2002-02.jpg" data-image-caption="2002: President Bill Clinton, Catherine B. Reynolds, Bono, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, and Frank McCourt at a symposium during the Academy of Achievement’s International Achievement Summit in Dublin. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="Bono, 2002, Dublin, Ireland" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2002-02-380x227.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2002-02.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.64342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_0324.jpg" data-image-caption="Author Frank McCourt, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for "Angela's Ashes," casts his spell over the Academy's delegates at the 2008 Academy Summit in Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_0324" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_0324-380x245.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_0324-760x489.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586.jpg" data-image-caption="Poet W.S. Merwin and memoirist Frank McCourt at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mer0-013-merwin-2008konasummit1586-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge2.jpg" data-image-caption="2005: Frank McCourt in a classroom at Stuyvesant High School in New York. McCourt taught in the city’s school system for nearly 30 years. (Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)" data-image-copyright="20mccourt-xlarge2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge2-380x228.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge2.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5.jpg" data-image-caption="1983: Frank McCourt at Stuyvesant High School. McCourt "spent three decades as a teacher of English and creative writing in New York City’s public schools." (John Sotomayor/The New York Times)" data-image-copyright="20mccourt-xlarge5" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5-380x228.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20mccourt.xlarge5.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0315.jpg" data-image-caption="Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt addresses Academy student delegates and members during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0315" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0315-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0315-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0319.jpg" data-image-caption="Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt addresses Academy student delegates and members during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0319" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0319-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0319-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0324.jpg" data-image-caption="Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt addresses Academy student delegates and members during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0324" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0324-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0324-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0326.jpg" data-image-caption="Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt addresses Academy student delegates and members during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0326" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0326-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0326-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452.jpg" data-image-caption="Frank McCourt and his wife, Ellen, chatting with an Academy student delegate during the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0452" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0452-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0868.jpg" data-image-caption="Ellen McCourt with friends, W. S. Merwin and his wife, Paula, at an outdoor reception during the Academy of Achievement's 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit0868" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0868-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit0868-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74473684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit1374.jpg" data-image-caption="W. S. Merwin receives the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement from author Frank McCourt at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2008konasummit1374" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit1374-380x283.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008konasummit1374-760x566.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4448669201521" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes.jpg" data-image-caption=""Angela's Ashes: A Memoir," the 1996 memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt. The memoir details McCourt's very early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, but focuses primarily on his life in Limerick, Ireland. It also includes McCourt's struggles with poverty and his father's alcoholism. The book was published in 1996, and won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The sequel, "'Tis," was published in 1999, followed by "Teacher Man" in 2005." data-image-copyright="angelas-ashes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes-263x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/angelas-ashes-526x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70588235294118" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt.jpg" data-image-caption="Ellen and Frank McCourt." data-image-copyright="Ellen and Frank McCourt." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt-380x268.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/frankmccourt.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70142857142857" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg.jpg" data-image-caption="At the beginning of the Korean War, Frank McCourt was drafted, at age 19." data-image-copyright="At the beginning of the Korean War, Frank McCourt was drafted at 19-years-old." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg-380x267.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gal-mccourt-6-jpg.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7579.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy member Frank McCourt chats with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and honoree John Hume before the Academy of Achievement's 2002 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in Dublin, Ireland. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="img_7579" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7579-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7579-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy member Frank McCourt chats with the Taoiseach of Ireland Bertie Ahern before the Academy of Achievement's 2002 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in Dublin, Ireland. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="img_7605" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7605-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7673.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy member Frank McCourt presents the Golden Plate Award to Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley at the 2002 International Achievement Summit in Dublin, Ireland. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="img_7673" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7673-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_7673-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4643545279383" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi.jpg" data-image-caption="Frank McCourt's 1999 memoir, "'Tis," begins where McCourt ended "Angela's Ashes," his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his impoverished childhood in Ireland and his return to America." data-image-copyright="mccourt-cover-tis-300-dpi" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi-260x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Cover-Tis-300-dpi-519x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2520593080725" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Frank-Corbis-FY001030.jpg" data-image-caption="1998: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt. (Francine Fleischer/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Frank McCourt" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Frank-Corbis-FY001030-303x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt-Frank-Corbis-FY001030-607x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.247947454844" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt_Franknew.jpg" data-image-caption="Frank McCourt" data-image-copyright="Frank McCourt" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt_Franknew-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/McCourt_Franknew-609x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy.jpg" data-image-caption="Frank McCourt with his younger brother, Malachy McCourt." data-image-copyright="Frank McCourt with his younger brother, Malachy McCourt." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt_with-malachy-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66973684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt-136591-050-1106B4BE.jpg" data-image-caption="October 12, 2006: Irish-born author Frank McCourt in Paris to promote his last book. (Ulf Andersen/ Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="mccourt-136591-050-1106b4be" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt-136591-050-1106B4BE-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mccourt-136591-050-1106B4BE-760x509.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Richard-with-Malachy-Alfie-Michael-and-Ellen-Mc-Court-celebrating-Franks-unveiling.-Photo-by-Eamon-Mc-Carthy.-JPG.jpg" data-image-caption="Frank McCourt's three brothers, Malachy, Alfie, and Michael, and his wife, Ellen McCourt, celebrating the unveiling of Frank’s statue at the opening of the Frank McCourt Museum in Limerick in 2010. (Limerick. Picture: Oisin McHugh/FusionShooters)" data-image-copyright="richard-with-malachy-alfie-michael-and-ellen-mc-court-celebrating-franks-unveiling-photo-by-eamon-mc-carthy-jpg" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Richard-with-Malachy-Alfie-Michael-and-Ellen-Mc-Court-celebrating-Franks-unveiling.-Photo-by-Eamon-Mc-Carthy.-JPG-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Richard-with-Malachy-Alfie-Michael-and-Ellen-Mc-Court-celebrating-Franks-unveiling.-Photo-by-Eamon-Mc-Carthy.-JPG-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5322580645161" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman.jpg" data-image-caption=""Teacher Man" is Frank McCourt's 2005 memoir, which describes and reflects on his teaching experiences in New York high schools and colleges." data-image-copyright="teacherman" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman-248x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/teacherman-496x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on July 17, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts the-arts experienced-war-firsthand analytical resourceful work-in-medicine write " data-year-inducted="2008" data-achiever-name="Hosseini"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/hosseini-760_SQUARE-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/hosseini-760_SQUARE-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Storytelling Phenomenon</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2008</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts analytical curious write explore-nature explore-the-world help-mankind " data-year-inducted="2008" data-achiever-name="Merwin"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/merwin-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/merwin-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">W. 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Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190224075637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. 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