Paula Fox

Paula Fox (April 22, 1923 – March 1, 2017) was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two memoirs. Fox won the Newbery Medal in 1974 for her novel The Slave Dancer. She also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978 and won a 1983 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for A Place Apart. In the mid-1990s, she enjoyed a revival as her adult fiction was championed by a new generation of American writers. In 2011, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

Fox is the biological mother of writer Linda Carroll and the biological grandmother of musician Courtney Love.

Early life Paula Fox was born in New York City on April 22, 1923. Her mother, Elsie De Sola, was a Cuban screenwriter. Her father, Paul Hervey Fox, was a writer as well.

Fox was raised by a succession of relatives, friends, and paid caregivers. She attended high school for only five months. She was championed by the author Jonathan Franzen, who saw that some of her books were re-issued. 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.

Fox married Richard Sigerson, by whom she had two sons. She later married literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg.

Adaptations A 1993 Portuguese feature film, Coitado do Jorge, was based on Poor George. Desperate Characters was made into a movie starring Shirley MacLaine 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) 1968 Dear Prosper (illus. Steve McLachlin) 1968 The Stone-Faced Boy (illus. Donald A. Mackay) 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) 1974 The Slave Dancer (illus. Eros Keith) 1978 The Little Swineherd and Other Tales (1996 edition illus. Robert Byrd) 1980 A Place Apart 1984 One-Eyed Cat