Great Regulars: After a childhood of almost impossible suffering,

Frank McCourt came to embody so many improbable dreams.

He was a survivor of poverty who became rich, the child of immigrants who made good. He was the retiree who stepped into a magical second life. He was the winning ticket for every ordinary person who has imagined that he or she could turn their lives into a book.

"What the memoir requires is a distinctive voice, and Frank was a master of his voice," said Mary Karr, a friend of McCourt and author of the best-selling memoir "The Liar's Club."

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: 'Angela's Ashes' author McCourt dies in NYC at 78

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