Paul Zindel was born on Staten Island, New York, on May 15, 1936. His father abandoned his family when the author was still very young, and this abandonment may explain why he writes so often about broken families. His family moved frequently in New York, dogged by poverty. At fifteen, Zindel was diagnosed with tuberculosis and placed in a sanitorium for a year and a half, delaying his graduation from high school by a year. He attended Wagner College, earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1958, and eventually a master's in chemistry as well. After a brief stint as a technical writer, he became a high school chemistry teacher, teaching on Staten Island from 1959 to 1969.

He had already begun writing plays while in college, and his interest in writing combined with his interest in his teenage students to result in The Pigman (please see separate entry...