New McCourt Brothers Collection Has Been Published

Editors Tom and Jonah Allon curated lost essays from Frank and Malachy McCourt in the new book, Sez I to Myself.

Updated on Sept. 20, 2026 in Books

New McCourt Brothers Collection Has Been Published

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Tom and Jonah Allon have released a new collection of essays by the late brothers Frank and Malachy McCourt titled Sez I to Myself. The publication coincides with the 30th anniversary of Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela's Ashes.

Why it matters

The project serves to preserve the authors' early writings from the pre-digital era, ensuring these perspectives are not lost to history. The collection features rediscovered columns from publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times.

Frank McCourt's memoir Angela's Ashes has sold approximately 10 million copies since its 1996 release. Malachy McCourt received roughly 40,000 votes during his 2006 gubernatorial run.

The players

Frank McCourt

He was an Irish-American teacher and author who gained international acclaim for his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.

Malachy McCourt

He was an actor, writer, and political activist who ran for governor of New York on the Green Party ticket in 2006.

Tom Allon

He is one of the editors who discovered the archives and facilitated the publication of the brothers' collected essays.

Abrams Press

This publishing house is responsible for bringing the collection of rediscovered McCourt essays to the public.

The details

The book was compiled after editors discovered a folder of eight columns in a basement and hired a typist to digitize yellowed Xerox copies. The content was sourced from private archives kept by the widows of the brothers, capturing work from 1987 and 1988 alongside other literary contributions.

1987-1988: Frank McCourt wrote columns for The West Side Spirit.
1996: Angela's Ashes was published by Scribner.
2006: Malachy McCourt ran for governor on the Green Party ticket.
2024: Malachy McCourt passed away.
September 2026: The book Sez I to Myself is published.

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Industry Dynamics

The release reflects a broader trend of revisiting and preserving legacy literary archives that predated modern digital workflows. It highlights how publishers leverage milestone anniversaries of blockbuster memoirs to reintroduce iconic authors to contemporary audiences.

Readers can now access long-lost journalism by the McCourt brothers that was previously trapped on aging paper archives. The book is available for purchase at major retailers, providing a new entry point into the brothers' distinct New York-centric voices.

The takeaway

This collection serves as a reminder of the historical value found in personal family archives. Readers interested in non-fiction can utilize this release to better understand the early professional work of authors who later achieved massive commercial success.