Paula Fox (April 22, 1923 – March 1, 2017) was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

. For her contributions as a children's writer she won the biennial, international

Hans Christian Andersen Award The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". Th ...

in 1978, the highest international recognition for a creator of children's books. She also won several awards for particular children's books including the 1974 Newbery Medal for her novel ''

The Slave Dancer ''The Slave Dancer'' is a historical novel written by Paula Fox and published in 1973. It tells the story of a boy called Jessie Bollier who witnessed first-hand the savagery of the Atlantic slave trade. The book not only includes a historica ...

''; a 1983 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for ''A Place Apart''; and the 2008 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for ''A Portrait of Ivan'' (1969) in its German-language edition ''Ein Bild von Ivan''. In 2011, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. The NYSW Hall of Fame is a project of the Empire State Center for the Book.. Her adult novels went out of print in 1992. In the mid nineties she enjoyed a revival as her adult fiction was championed by a new generation of American writers.

Early life

Paula Fox was born in New York City on April 22, 1923. Her mother, Elsie De Sola, was Cuban and a screenwriter. Her father,

Paul Hervey Fox Paul Hervey Fox (March 13, 1894 November 1, 1954) was an American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. He wrote several films during the pre-Code era and Hollywood golden age, including ''Mandalay'' (1934), ''Grand Finale'' (1936), ''The Las ...

, wrote screenplays and taught English. After he divorced Elsie, he had 3 sons and a daughter with his second wife, Mary. Elsie De Sola Fox rejected her daughter Paula at birth and she and Paul left her in a foundling home. Her maternal grandmother, Candelaria de Sola, temporarily visiting New York City, rescued her and she was moved around Florida, Cuba and the US. Unable at the time to provide a home herself, Candelaria gave the infant to Reverend Elwood Corning and his bedridden mother in

Balmville, New York Balmville is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Orange County, New York, United States. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Br ...

. Corning treated Fox kindly and taught her important lessons. When she first visited her parents at age five, her mother treated her like a prisoner of war. As she wrote in her memoir ''Borrowed Finery'', the reunion was so traumatic that "I sensed that if she could have hidden the act she would have killed me." In 1944, Fox was living in the household of famed acting coach Stella Adler and became friendly with

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...

, another of Adler's students who was living there. She became pregnant and gave the child, Linda Carroll, up for adoption. There have been persistent rumors that Brando was in fact Carroll's father, although neither Brando nor Fox ever commented on the matter. Carroll, who became an author and psychotherapist, is the mother of musician Courtney Love. Visual artist Frances Bean Cobain is Fox's great-granddaughter.

Career

Fox attended the Columbia University School of General Studies from 1955-58 and married Richard Sigerson, by whom she had two sons. She later married literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg, and worked for years as a teacher and tutor for troubled children. Only in her 40s did she begin her first novel, ''Poor George'', about a cynical schoolteacher who finds purpose—and ruin—in mentoring a vagrant teenager. The novel was received well (

Bernard Bergonzi Bernard Bergonzi FRSL (13 April 1929 – 20 September 2016) was a British literary scholar, critic, and poet. He was Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Warwick and an expert on T. S. Eliot. He was born in London and studied at ...

in the '' New York Review of Books'' calling it "the best novel I've read in a long time") but sold poorly, a pattern that all her adult novels would follow. ''Desperate Characters'' came next with Alfred Kazin calling it a "brilliant performance" and "quite devastating" while

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

described it as "a reserved and beautifully realized novel". By 1992 all six of her novels were out of print. In 2011 she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. The Writers Hall of Fame is a project of the Empire State Center for the Book. She was championed by the author Jonathan Franzen, who saw that some of her books were re-issued. Fox died at age 93 in Brooklyn on March 1, 2017.

Adaptations

A Portuguese Feature Film ''Coitado do Jorge''. based on ''Poor George'' was directed by Jorge Silva Melo in 1993.

Desperate Characters ''Desperate Characters'' is a 1970 novel by Paula Fox. Plot Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a childless, upper-middle class married couple who live in a brownstone in Brooklyn. She is a translator, he an attorney, currently preoccupied by the acr ...

was made into a movie starring

Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...

in 1971.

Works

Children's fiction

*1966 ''Maurice's Room'' (illustrated by Ingrid Fetz) *1967 ''How Many Miles to Babylon?'' (illus. Paul Giovanopoulos) *1967 ''A Likely Place'' (illus.

Edward Ardizzone Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All ...

) *1968 ''Dear Prosper'' (illus. Steve McLachlin) *1968 ''The Stone-Faced Boy'' (illus.

Donald A. Mackay Donald Alexander Mackay (August 13, 1914 – December 17, 2005) was an American artist and illustrator. His illustrations appeared in ''Time'', ''Life'' magazine, '' The New Times'', ''Newsweek'', '' National Geographic'', and other publicatio ...

) *1969 ''Hungry Fred'' (illus. Rosemary Wells) *1969 ''The King's Falcon'' (illus. Eros Keith) *1969 ''Portrait of Ivan'' (illus. Saul Lambert) *1970 ''Blowfish Live in the Sea'' *1973 ''Good Ethan'' (illus.

Arnold Lobel Arnold Stark Lobel (May 22, 1933 – December 4, 1987) was an American author of children's books, including the '' Frog and Toad'' series and '' Mouse Soup''. He wrote and illustrated these picture books as well as ''Fables'', a 1981 Caldecott M ...

) *1974 ''

'' (illus. Eros Keith) *1978 ''The Little Swineherd and Other Tales'' (1996 edition illus. Robert Byrd) *1980 ''A Place Apart'' *1984 ''One-Eyed Cat'' *1986 ''The Moonlight Man'' *1987 ''Lily and the Lost Boy'' (also as ''The Lost Boy'') *1988 ''The Village by the Sea'' (also as ''In a Place of Darkness'') *1991 '' Monkey Island'' *1993 ''Western Wind'' *1995 ''The Eagle Kite'' (also as ''The Gathering Darkness'') *1997 ''Radiance Descending'' *1999 ''Amzat and His Brothers: Three Italian Tales''

Memoirs

*2001 ''Borrowed Finery'' *2005 ''The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe''

Adult fiction

*1967 ''Poor George'' *1970 ''

'' *1972 ''The Western Coast'' *1976 ''

The Widow's Children ''The Widow’s Children'' is a novel by American writer Paula Fox, first published in 1976. The book evoked bewilderment as well as praise when first published. Reissued once in 1986, it went out of print in 1990. A paperback was issued by pub ...

'' *1984 ''A Servant's Tale'' *1990 ''The God of Nightmares'' *2011 ''News from the World: Stories and Essays''

Notes

References

External links

Paula Fox
at Boyds Mills Press * ;Interviews * .

by

Ramona Koval Ramona Koval (born 1954, Melbourne) is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist. Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of The Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950. Koval is known for her extended and in-depth in ...

for

The Book Show Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

(July 29, 2004).
Interview with short biography
by Jesse Lichtenstein for '' Loggernaut'' (no date)
The Rumpus Long Interview with Paula Fox
by Greg Gerke (January 24, 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Paula 1923 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American novelists American children's writers American women novelists American writers of Cuban descent Columbia University alumni Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing winners Hispanic and Latino American novelists Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners Newbery Medal winners Newbery Honor winners Writers from New York City 21st-century American women writers American women children's writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers Novelists from New York (state)