From the Chalkface to Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes May Have Made Him a Household Name, but Frank Mccourt Was Already Known to Thousands of New Yorkers . . . As Their Teacher. Here, He Talks About His Time at School . . . And the Years Since

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TO most of us, Frank McCourt is the author of Angela's Ashes, a memoir about an Irish-American childhood scarred by (in no particular order) poverty, death, alcoholism and rain. He's also a Pulitzer Prize winner and the man who set in motion the gold rush that saw publishers throw book deals at anyone with a painful upbringing.

Without McCourt there would be no Dave Pelzer, no Augusten Burroughs.

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From the Chalkface to Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes May Have Made Him a Household Name, but Frank Mccourt Was Already Known to Thousands of New Yorkers . . . As Their Teacher. Here, He Talks About His Time at School . . . And the Years Since

But before his elevation to the bestseller list at the age of 66, McCourt had another profession entirely. For 30 years he taught English at some of New York's toughest schools, starting at McKee Vocational and Technical High School on Staten Island and winding up at Stuyvesant High School on the Lower West Side. To the 12,000 students who passed through his classrooms over the years, he isn't Frank the author, he's Mr McCourt, teacher man.

"I became a storyteller in the classroom, " he says as he sits down, a sprightly figure despite his 75 years.

Indeed, many of the tales that form Angela's Ashes and its sequel, 'Tis, were first aired for the benefit of McCourt's pu...

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