Angela's Ashes Author Frank McCourt Battling Meningitis

In sad news, it is being reported that Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt is gravely ill. (AP Images)"]
Irish-born New York City teacher Frank McCourt burst on to the literary scene with the million-selling Pulitzer Prize winning novel Angela's Ashes. And sadly, it was revealed today that the 78-year-old author is very ill with meningitis.

Malachy  McCourt, Frank McCourt's brother said that he was recently treated for melanoma, but that he had been doing well until about two weeks ago, when he contracted meningitis.

"He was out and about, being active, doing talks and so forth," he said.

Frank McCourt is currently being treated in a hospice in New York where he lives. However, Malachy has confirmed that his brother's "faculties are shutting down."

Frank McCourt earned his Pulitzer Prize in 1997 and National Book Critics Circle Award for his memoir Angela's Ashes, which chronicles his childhood as a poor Irish Catholic. McCourt also penned of 'Tis, about his life as a new immigrant in America, and Teacher Man, where he hilariously wrote about his experiences as a young teacher in New York City.