He was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Since tuberculosis was a highly contagious respiratory disease, he was confined to an adult sanatorium for 18 months. Zindel believed that, as he told
Scholastic Voice writers, "being the only kid in an adult world has done things to me I don't even know about." However, it was in the sanatorium where Zindel wrote his first play.
After recovering, Zindel graduated from high school and left home once again, this time to attend Wagner College in New York. Zindel did not receive a degree in English, literature, or writing, but in 1958, received his bachelor's degree in chemistry and education. In 1959, he also completed a masters of science degree in chemistry. Zindel, as quoted in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, had "a great love ... of microcosms, of peering at other worlds framed and separate from me." Following college, Zindel found work as a technical writer for a chemical company. After six months, he quit and became a chemistry teacher at Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York. In his free time, he continued to write plays such as Dimensions of Peacocks and A Dream of Swallows. In the early 1960s, both plays ran on-stage in New York City.
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