Hi, it's Alice.

There are some books so great you want to read them for a second time,

and some writer so fascinating, you could listen to them talk again and again.

In that spirit we bring you one of our favorite episodes. It's about Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize 25 years ago.

Here's Frank McCourt reading from the opening passage of the The happy childhood is hardly worth a while.

Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood,

and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

If you heard our episode on Frank McCourt back in 2017,

we are confident you'll enjoy it again.

And if you're hearing it for the first time, you're in for a treat. Thanks for listening.

In 1996 a New York City Public School Teacher who was getting ready to retire wrote his first book.

It was a memoir about his tragic childhood in Limerick, Ireland, a childhood just bursting

at the seams with misery and alcoholism and poverty.

In economic circumstance it was it was desperate it was it was Calcutta with rain.

The author of course was Frank McCourt and the book was Angela's

ashes. Getting published at 66 years old was a lifelong dream for McCourt but he

didn't just get published. He won a Pulitzer Prize and became

a literary celebrity. It was a stunning turn of events for a humble immigrant. Back in the slums of Ireland he barely had an education,

but for some reason he was always desperate to write. If they told me to write an

essay of 150 words, I'd write 500 words.

So the master said, stop, McCord, stop. That's enough. Stop.

And then they might read it to the class. And then, of course, I'd be teased again in the school,

...