Speaking in 2001, Frank McCourt explained what inspired him to write Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt, author of best-seller Angela's Ashes, has died of cancer in a New York hospice.
The 78-year-old Irish-American writer was suffering from meningitis and had recently been treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Angela's Ashes, a memoir of McCourt's childhood in Ireland, sold millions of copies and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Before the book's 1996 publication, McCourt was a New York high school teacher for 30 years.
Frank McCourt speaking in 2007 about his children's book Angela and the Baby Jesus
Quoted by the New York Times newspaper, Susan Moldow of McCourt's publisher Scribner said the cause of his death, on Sunday afternoon, was metastatic melanoma.
'Epic of woe'
Born in New York, McCourt travelled to Ireland during the Great Depression with his parents at an early age.
Angela's Ashes provides a graphic description of his childhood in abject poverty in the slums of the Irish city of Limerick.
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