ZINDEL, Paul 1936-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born March 15, 1936, in Tottenville, NY; died of cancer March 27, 2003, in New York, NY. Author. Zindel was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who also famous for his novels for teenagers. Although his acclaim came from writing, in college he studied chemistry, earning a B.S. in 1958 and an M.S. in 1959 from Wagner College. After working as a technical writer for a year, he spent the 1960s as a high school chemistry teacher at Tottenville High School on Staten Island. While still teaching, in his spare time he wrote plays such as Dimensions of Peacocks (1959) and A Dream of Swallows (1962). His first big success came with the 1964 play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Manin-the-Moon Marigolds, which was largely based on his own unhappy Staten Island childhood living with his manic-depressive, single mother. The play ran on Broadway and earned him an Obie Award and New York Drama Critics Circle award, both in 1970, and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1971; he also adapted it into a 1966 film. In addition to his plays, Zindel became a critically acclaimed author of novels for teenagers, including The Pigman (1968), The Undertaker's Gone Bananas (1978), The Pigman's Legacy (1980), The Doom Stone (1995), and Egyptian Mystery (2002). He also wrote books for children and continued writing plays into the 1980s, such as A Destiny on Half Moon Street (1985) and Amulets against Dragon Forces (1989), screenplays such as Mame (1974), and teleplays such as Alice in Wonderland (1985), and Babes in Toyland (1986). In 1984, furthermore, he published a novel for adults, When Darkness Falls, and in 1992 released his memoirs, The Pigman and Me. For all his prolific years, however, Zindel will likely be best remembered for The Effect of Gamma Rays and The Pigman.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Writers Directory, 18th edition, St. James Press(Detroit, MI), 2003.

periodicals

Chicago Tribune, March 31, 2003, section 4, p. 8.

Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2003, p. B21.

New York Times, March 29, 2003, p. A23.

Washington Post, March 29, 2003, p. B7.