Very sad news. He has just died. He had been battling skin cancer and meningitis.
He was the author of wonderful books about his childhood in Ireland such as:
* Angela's Ashes (1996)(won Pulitzer Prize)
* 'Tis (1999)
* Teacher Man (2005)
* Angela and the Baby Jesus (2007)
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
He was born in New York, the eldest of seven children. After not finding work in the midst of the depression, the family moved back to Ireland where they lived in deeper poverty.
His books were about the struggles of his family to surive deep poverty in Ireland.
"I didn’t call myself anything. I was more than a teacher. And less. In the high school classroom you are a drill sergeant, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer, a conductor, an apologist, a philosopher, a collaborator, a tap dancer, a traffic cop, a priest, a mother-father-brother-sister-uncle-aunt, a bookkeeper, a critic, a psychologist, the last straw."
I found this little gem from Frank in an interiew on the internet:
Does anything else make you unhappy?
The phoniness of everything. I can barely watch the television anymore. What shows disgust you most? The news. O’Reilly. I couldn’t look at his face. Or the other clown—Hannity. Chris Matthews.
Irishmen all.
I know. They have a big mouth. [Laughs]