Zindel, Paul.

Zindel, Paul (b. May 15, 1936, Staten Island, N.Y., U.S.)

American playwright and novelist whose largely autobiographical work features poignant, alienated characters who deal with life's difficulties in pragmatic and straightforward ways.

Zindel attended Wagner College, Staten Island, N.Y., and taught high school chemistry for several years before becoming a full-time writer in 1972. In most of Zindel's dramas the main tension is between a nonconformist, domineering mother and an impressionable, bewildered young person. His plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-MoonMarigolds,The (1971), And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971), The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild (1973), Let Me Hear You Whisper (1970), The Ladies Should Be in Bed (1973), A Destiny with Half Moon Street (produced 1983; published 1992), and Amulets Against the Dragon Forces (1989; based partly on his novel Confessions of a Teenage Baboon). Among his novels for young adults are The Pigman (1968), My Darling, My Hamburger (1969), Harry and Hortense at Hormone High (1984), and A Begonia for Miss Applebaum (1989).