Auster, Paul

American author from a Jewish family, born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents, Queenie and Samuel Auster, came from Poland. His father worked as a landlord. The family lived a simple middle-class life, but the marriage was unhappy. Queenie was thirteen years younger than Samuel when she married, and the couple were on the whole strangers to each other. Queenie Auster wanted to leave her husband, but stayed when she became pregnant with her son Paul. Later a daughter, Janet, was also born. The sister suffered from mental illness from an early age.