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Best-selling Irish-American writer Frank McCourt has died in New York at the age of 78. He had developed meningitis after being treated for malignant melanoma.

A teacher for nearly thirty years, McCourt was best-known for the memoirs he published in retirement. The eldest of seven siblings, he was born in Brooklyn in 1930; but his Irish parents soon returned to Limerick, fleeing the Depression, only to find greater poverty in Ireland.

McCourt's account of his childhood, Angela's Ashes, published in 1996, became his most famous work; it was published around the world, won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and a film adaptation was released in 1999. Controversy over whether or not the author exaggerated the level of hardship he experienced did not diminish the book's popularity.

McCourt went on to produce two more memoirs chronicling different stages of his life. 'Tis (1999) covered his return to America at the age of 19, his period in the US Army, and his eventual acceptance at New York University. McCourt's years as a schoolteacher are dealt with in 2005's Teacher Man. His final work, Angela and the Baby Jesus (2007), was a picture book based on a story McCourt's mother told to her children about her childhood.

McCourt lived with his wife Ellen in Conneticut, where his ashes will be scattered. A memorial service for him will take place in September.

David Hebblethwaite