弗朗西斯·麦考特（Francis McCourt）是一位爱尔兰裔美国教师和作家。他因《安吉拉的灰烬》一书而获得普利策奖，这是一本关于他童年苦难和肮脏的悲喜剧回忆录。1949 年 10 月，19 岁的麦考特离开了爱尔兰。他从各种工作中攒下了钱，包括当电报送货员，并在她去世后从他的一位雇主那里偷了钱，一个放债人。他从科克乘船到纽约市。他在船上遇到的一位牧师为他安排了一个房间，并在纽约市的比尔特莫尔酒店工作。他每周赚大约26美元，并将其中的10美元寄给他在利默里克的母亲。马拉奇和迈克尔兄弟跟着他去了纽约，后来他们的母亲安吉拉也跟着他去了纽约。1951年，麦考特在朝鲜战争期间被征召入伍，被派往巴伐利亚州两年，最初训练狗，然后担任文员。从美国陆军退伍后，他回到纽约市，在码头、仓库和银行从事一系列工作。

利用他的退伍军人法案教育福利，麦考特声称他很聪明，读了很多书，从而进入了纽约大学;他们以一年的缓刑录取了他，前提是他保持 B 的平均成绩。他于1957年毕业于纽约大学，获得英语学士学位。他曾在纽约的六所学校任教，包括麦基职业技术高中、史坦顿岛的 Ralph R. McKee CTE 高中、布鲁克林的纽约市理工学院、史岱文森高中、苏厄德公园高中、华盛顿欧文高中和时装产业高中，都在曼哈顿。1967 年，他在布鲁克林学院获得硕士学位，1960 年代后期，他在都柏林的三一学院度过了 18 个月，在返回纽约市之前未能获得博士学位。

在1997年《纽约时报》的一篇文章中，麦考特写了他在布鲁克林纽约市理工学院（New York City College of Technology）教授移民母亲的经历。

麦考特凭借 1996 年的畅销回忆录《安吉拉的灰烬》获得了年度普利策传记或自传奖和年度国家书评人协会奖之一，该书详细介绍了他从布鲁克林到利默里克的贫困童年。三年后，电影版《安吉拉的灰烬》上映后褒贬不一。北爱尔兰演员迈克尔·莱格（Michael Legge）在十几岁时扮演麦考特。麦考特还创作了《蒂斯》，继续叙述他的生活，从安吉拉的灰烬的结尾开始，专注于他回到纽约后的生活。随后，他写了《人老师》，详细介绍了他的教学经验和作为教师的挑战。

麦考特被包括理查德·哈里斯在内的许多利默里克本地人指责大大夸大了他家庭的贫困成长经历。麦考特的母亲在1981年去世前不久否认了他故事的准确性，在一次舞台表演中，麦考特在观众席上大喊，说这“都是一堆谎言”。然而，至少，他的许多史岱文森高中学生都清楚地记得他在高级创意写作选修课上不断讲述的童年轶事。

麦考特为 1997 年的音乐剧《爱尔兰人》写了这本书......以及 How They Got That Way，其中融合了爱尔兰音乐的折衷组合;从传统的“Danny Boy”到 U2 的“I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For”，应有尽有。

Francis McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. In October 1949, at the age of 19, McCourt left Ireland. He had saved money from various jobs including as a telegram delivery boy and stolen from one of his employers, a moneylender, after her death. He took a boat from Cork to New York City. A priest he had met on the ship got him a room to stay in and his job at New York City's Biltmore Hotel. He earned about $26 a week and sent $10 of it to his mother in Limerick. Brothers Malachy and Michael followed him to New York and so, later, did their mother Angela. In 1951, McCourt was drafted during the Korean War and sent to Bavaria for two years initially training dogs, then as a clerk. Upon his discharge from the US Army, he returned to New York City, where he held a series of jobs on docks, in warehouses, and in banks.

Using his GI Bill education benefits, McCourt talked his way into New York University by claiming he was intelligent and read a great deal; they admitted him on one year's probation provided he maintained a B average. He graduated in 1957 from New York University with a bachelor's degree in English. He taught at six New York schools, including McKee Vocational and Technical High School, Ralph R. McKee CTE High School in Staten Island, New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn, Stuyvesant High School, Seward Park High School, Washington Irving High School, and the High School of Fashion Industries, all in Manhattan. In 1967, he earned a master's degree at Brooklyn College, and in the late 1960s he spent 18 months at Trinity College in Dublin, failing to earn his PhD before returning to New York City.

In a 1997 New York Times essay, McCourt wrote about his experiences teaching immigrant mothers at New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn.

McCourt won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and one of the annual National Book Critics Circle Awards for his bestselling 1996 memoir, Angela's Ashes, which details his impoverished childhood from Brooklyn to Limerick. Three years later, a movie version of Angela's Ashes opened to mixed reviews. Northern Irish actor Michael Legge played McCourt as a teenager. McCourt also authored 'Tis , which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of Angela's Ashes and focusing on his life after he returned to New York. He subsequently wrote Teacher Man which detailed his teaching experiences and the challenges of being a teacher.

McCourt was accused of greatly exaggerating his family's impoverished upbringing by many Limerick natives, including Richard Harris. McCourt's own mother had denied the accuracy of his stories shortly before her death in 1981, shouting from the audience during a stage performance of his recollections that it was "all a pack of lies." However, at the very least, many of his Stuyvesant High School students remembered quite clearly the mordant childhood anecdotes that he continually told during sessions of his senior-level Creative Writing elective.

McCourt wrote the book for a 1997 musical entitled The Irish… and How They Got That Way, which featured an eclectic mix of Irish music; everything from the traditional "Danny Boy" to U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."