Paul Auster

About Paul Auster

Birth Day: February 03, 1947
Birth Place: United States
Pen name: Paul Queen Paul Benjamin
Occupation: Novelist and poet
Period: 1974–present
Genre: Absurdist fiction, crime fiction, mystery fiction
Literary movement: Postmodernism
Spouse: Lydia Davis (1974–1977; divorced; 1 child) Siri Hustvedt (1981–present; 1 child)

Paul Auster

Paul Auster was born on February 03, 1947 in United States. Paul Auster is an internationally acclaimed author, who is well-known for his distinct themes such as that contain elements of absurdism, identity crisis and existentialism. Some of his highly praised pieces of work include ‘The New York Trilogy’, ‘Moon Palace’, ‘The Music of Chance’, ‘The Book of Illusions’ and ‘The Brooklyn Follies’. He has established himself as one of the most distinct and original writers in contemporary literature and his works have been translated in over thirty languages around the world. He is also a successful editor, poet, screenplay writer and has translated the works of many acclaimed French authors. He has also authored touching personal memoirs and autobiographies like his debut publication ‘The Invention of Solitude’, ‘Winter Journal’ and the most recent publication ‘Report From The Interior’. Apart from authoring novels and poems, he has also written lyrics for many songs including ‘Natty Man Blues’. He has also directed award winning motion pictures and with all of these accomplishments, he has been hailed as one of the most successful and multi-talented individuals in the field of writing. To learn more interesting facts about his childhood, personal life and professional achievements, scroll down and continue to read this biography.
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Does Paul Auster Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Paul Auster is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Paul Auster - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Paul Auster is 77 years, 1 months and 25 days old. Paul Auster will celebrate 78rd birthday on a Monday 3rd of February 2025. Below we countdown to Paul Auster upcoming birthday.

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Popular As Paul Auster
Occupation Writers
Age 76 years old
Zodiac Sign Pisces
Born February 03, 1947 (United States)
Birthday February 03
Town/City United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Paul Auster’s zodiac sign is Pisces. According to astrologers, Pisces are very friendly, so they often find themselves in a company of very different people. Pisces are selfless, they are always willing to help others, without hoping to get anything back. Pisces is a Water sign and as such this zodiac sign is characterized by empathy and expressed emotional capacity.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Paul Auster was born in the Year of the Pig. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Pig are extremely nice, good-mannered and tasteful. They’re perfectionists who enjoy finer things but are not perceived as snobs. They enjoy helping others and are good companions until someone close crosses them, then look out! They’re intelligent, always seeking more knowledge, and exclusive. Compatible with Rabbit or Goat.

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Famous Quotes:

But in the end, he manages to resolve the question for himself - more or less. He finally comes to accept his own life, to understand that no matter how bewitched and haunted he is, he has to accept reality as it is, to tolerate the presence of ambiguity within himself.

— Paul Auster about the protagonist of The Locked Room, quoted in Martin Klepper, Pynchon, Auster, DeLillo.

Biography/Timeline

1947

Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American Writer and Director whose writing blends absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction, and the search for identity and personal meaning. His notable works include The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), and The Brooklyn Follies (2005). His books have been translated into more than forty languages.

1970

After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, he moved to Paris, France where he earned a living translating French literature. Since returning to the U.S. in 1974, he has published poems, essays, and novels of his own, as well as translations of French Writers such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Joseph Joubert.

1981

Auster and his second wife, Writer Siri Hustvedt (the daughter of professor and scholar Lloyd Hustvedt), were married in 1981, and they live in Brooklyn. Together they have one daughter, Sophie Auster.

1995

The search for identity and personal meaning has permeated Auster's later publications, many of which concentrate heavily on the role of coincidence and random events (The Music of Chance) or increasingly, the relationships between people and their peers and environment (The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace). Auster's heroes often find themselves obliged to work as part of someone else's inscrutable and larger-than-life schemes. In 1995, Auster wrote and co-directed the films Smoke (which won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay) and Blue in the Face. Auster's more recent works, Oracle Night (2003), The Brooklyn Follies (2005), and the novella Travels in the Scriptorium, have also met critical acclaim.

2004

He was on the PEN American Center Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2009, and Vice President during 2005 to 2007.

2008

"Over the past twenty-five years," opined Michael Dirda in The New York Review of Books in 2008, "Paul Auster has established one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature." Dirda also has extolled his loaded virtues in The Washington Post:

2009

Literary critic James Wood, however, offers Auster little praise in his piece "Shallow Graves" in the November 30, 2009, issue of The New Yorker:

2010

As of November 2010, Auster has been at work on a new novel, but has said that in the past few years he has found it harder to come up with ideas: "I used to have a backlog of stories, but a few years ago I found the drawers were empty. I guess I’m getting to the point where I tell myself if I can’t write another book it’s not a tragedy. Does it matter if I publish 16 or 17 novels? Unless it’s absolutely urgent, there’s no point in writing."

2012

In 2012, Auster was quoted as saying in an interview that he would not visit Turkey, in protest of its treatment of journalists. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan replied: "As if we need you! Who cares if you come or not?" Auster responded: "According to the latest numbers gathered by International PEN, there are nearly one hundred Writers imprisoned in Turkey, not to speak of independent publishers such as Ragıp Zarakolu, whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world".

2014

Dirda and Wood—both based in the United States—assess Auster's literary qualities more than his view of American society, which cultural Historian Morris Berman suggests is the basis for his European popularity:

2017

Auster's most recent memoir, A Life in Words, will be published in October 2017 by Seven Stories Press. It discusses primarily the craft of writing in relation to Auster's own life, and is based on Auster's dialogues with I.B. Siegumfeldt from 2011 until the book's publication, while the latter was working to found the Center for Paul Auster Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

2019

According to a dissertation by Heiko Jakubzik at the University of Heidelberg, two central influences in Paul Auster's writing are Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis, and the American transcendentalism of the early to middle 19th century, as exemplified by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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