Late Bloomer Frank McCourt and the Creation of “Angela’s Ashes”

If you think you’re too old to write a book, perhaps a memoir, you might want to look at the case of Frank McCourt, who wrote the blockbuster Angela’s Ashes after his retirement as English teacher in the New York City public schools.  He was 66 when it was published in 1996 to widespread acclaim, winning a Pulitzer Prize.  

Now, granted, we haven’t all experienced McCourt’s impoverished childhood, circumstances that, in his telling, were positively Dickensian, or have his well-honed Irish sense of humor.  Still, he did not believe his memoir would amount to much.  As he told New York times reporter Robert Sullivan shortly after its publication, 

“I’m amazed,’’ he said, ‘’because I thought it was a modest book, modestly written, and that it might have a modest reception. I’ve often said that poverty is rarely portrayed well, and I tried to portray the stink of poverty, and you know, the other night I was opening pages, because it’s been quite a while since I handed it in, and I was laughing, because of the way something was put.”

— Frank McCourt

Still, McCourt credited his third wife, Ellen Frey McCourt, with pushing him to stop merely telling the stories and to start writing them down.  Shortly after they married in 1994, Frank started writing during the day and reading his pages back to her the next morning over coffee. Friends saw her as the “tuning fork,” who encouraged him to leaven the grim material with humor.  The result speaks for itself.

Frank McCourt wrote two follow up memoirs, ‘Tis and Teacher Man.  He died in July, 2009 at the age of 78.  

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/nyregion/26about.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/magazine/the-seanachie.html?smid=em-share

Imperfections

“The point of art is that it has imperfections. That’s what makes it real.”

So remarked Irish author John Banville in an article in The New York Times Book Review by Nicholas Casey, on January 5, 2025. Banville is one of several authors who’ve been invited by Spain’s Prado Museum to live nearby for several weeks and immerse themselves in the museum’s art collection, with the hope that the experience will be reflected in the authors’ writing.

Banville was given a special pre-opening tour of the exhibit on “Rubens’ Workshop.” The exhibit’s curator invited Banville to view two portraits of Queen Anne of Austria, one of which was the original by Rubens and the other copied by his workshop. The difference? One of the portraits had brushstrokes that “looked much rougher and more unfinished than those on the other,” according to the article.

Which was the true Rubens, Banville was asked, and he correctly chose the painting with the rougher brushwork. How did he know, he was asked later by the museum’s director. As the author recounts, “There was something brilliant about [the scrappier brushwork, Banville] said. ‘The point of art is that it has imperfections. That’s what makes it real.’”

As AI intrudes further into our lives and offers to take the burden of composing memos or creating images of our hands, let’s resolve to continue making our own stuff, knowing that what makes it art is not that it’s perfect, but that it’s NOT perfect. That’s what makes it real.

If you don’t know Banville’s work, you might enjoy his crime series featuring the Dublin pathologist cum detective Quirke in atmospherically rendered 1950’s Ireland, most wri]en under the pen name Benjamin Black. My favorite book by Banville is The Sea, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005.

Ruebens, Anne of Austria

From The New York Times:

The Prado, Renowned for Its Art, Tries a New Role: Muse to Authors

Spain’s most storied museum has been inviting writers, including Nobel laureates, to live nearby and take inspiration from its paintings.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/books/booksupdate/the-prado-writing-residence.html?smid=em-share

New Year, New You? New Artist?

New Year, New You? New Artist? My life took a bit of a turn when I signed up for a three-day workshop at the arts center where I spent some time this summer. Why? I’m not sure, but I was itching for a new challenge and thought picking up a paint brush, which I haven’t done since high school, would be fun. How did it change my life? Well, I’m writing this blog post and I’m starting a podcast to talk about what happened to me: The space it created in my brain for new things to happen. If you want to find a place where you can experiment, here are some places to try:

• Neighborhood art centers: I googled “art center near me” and I found one I didn’t know about, only 20 minutes away. You may think they only have classes for kids, but they may have just the type of activity that sounds intriguing.

• Writing centers and workshops: One local college near me has well-regarded writing workshops for community members. There is also an independent Writer’s Center with a wide range of workshop offerings, from beginners to nearly-there novelists.

• Community Colleges: We got a Community Education catalog in the mail from our community college, and it is filled with a range of classes from instrumental instruction,, dance, photography, painting, and writing.

• Local Libraries: What is offered at your library? A writer’s group? A book club? An art history class?

• Online Communities: Of course, in the wake of the pandemic, online courses, groups, workshops, etc. have made collaboration and learning a truly global experience. A friend starting working in collage, and now she is part of an on-line group that shares their work, techniques, resources, and prompts and challenges that get the creative juices flowing.

What might there be in your community to help you along your creative journey?