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.
Paula Fox
- Born
- 1923. · New York City.
- Died
- 2017. · Brooklyn.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- translator, novelist and writer.
- Fields
- children's.
- Education
- Columbia University.
- Known for
- The Slave Dancer.
- Honours
- Newbery Medal, Guggenheim Fellowship, Zilveren Griffel and Hans Christian Andersen Award.
- Languages
- English.
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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.
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Paula Fox (1923–2017) was an American novelist, translator and writer. Born in New York City, the novelist died in Brooklyn.
Paula Fox studied at Columbia University. The novelist was a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Works include The Slave Dancer. Genres include children's. Languages used include English. Paula Fox received Guggenheim Fellowship, Hans Christian Andersen Award and Newbery Medal, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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Authority files
wikidata · Q134477 · wikipedia · Paula Fox
In this article
Early life
Early life
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.
Paula Fox studied at Columbia University. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are children's. Works named in the authority record are The Slave Dancer. Distinctions recorded are Newbery Medal, Guggenheim Fellowship, Zilveren Griffel and Hans Christian Andersen Award.
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. Elsie De Sola Fox rejected Paula at birth, and she and her husband left Paula at a foundling home. Paula's maternal grandmother, Candelaria de Sola, rescued her. Unable at the time to provide a home for Fox herself, Candelaria gave the infant to Reverend Elwood Corning and his bedridden mother in Balmville, New York. Corning treated Fox kindly and taught her important lessons. When Fox first visited her parents at age five, her mother openly scorned her. As Fox wrote in her memoir Borrowed Finery, the reunion was so traumatic that she sensed that if her mother "could have hidden the act she would have killed me." Fox would later refer to her mother as a "sociopath." Fox was raised by a succession of relatives, friends, and paid caregivers. She attended high school for only five months. Fox attended the Columbia University School of General Studies from 1955 to 1958.
Career
Career
Fox worked for years as a teacher and tutor for troubled children. Only in her 40s did she begin her first novel, Poor George, about a cynical schoolteacher who finds purpose—and ruin—in mentoring a vagrant teenager. The novel was received well (Bernard Bergonzi in the New York Review of Books calling it "the best novel I've read in a long time") but sold poorly, a pattern that all her adult novels would follow. Desperate Characters came next with Alfred Kazin calling it a "brilliant performance" and "quite devastating" while Lionel Trilling described it as "a reserved and beautifully realized novel". For her contributions as a children's writer, Fox won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978, the highest international recognition for a creator of children's books. She also won several awards for particular children's books including the 1974 Newbery Medal for her novel The Slave Dancer; a 1983 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for A Place Apart; and the 2008 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for A Portrait of Ivan (1969) in its German-language edition Ein Bild von Ivan. Her six novels went out of print in 1992. In the mid-1990s, she enjoyed a revival as her adult fiction was championed by a new generation of American writers. In 2011, Fox was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She was championed by the author Jonathan Franzen, who saw that some of her books were re-issued.
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
In 1943, Fox was living in the household of famed acting coach Stella Adler and became friendly with Marlon Brando, another of Adler's students who was living there. 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. Frances Bean Cobain is Fox's great-granddaughter. Fox married Richard Sigerson, by whom she had two sons. She later married literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg. Fox was mugged in Jerusalem in 1996 and suffered a head injury that affected her ability to write. Fox died at age 93 in Brooklyn on March 1, 2017.
Adaptations
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.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1923
Paula Fox born at New York City.
2017
Paula Fox died at Brooklyn.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
New York City.
Birth place
Brooklyn.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Paula Fox (1923- ): The I Have/Who Has Game, Gateway to Reading, 2013
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2013
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q134477: Paula Fox
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Paula Fox”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Author Paula Fox, Newbery Medal winner and grandmother of Courtney Love, dies at 93. Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. March 3, 2017.
- 2.Staino, Rocco (May 12, 2011). "Paula Fox on a Roll". School Library Journal. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
- 3.Acocella, Joan. From Bad Beginnings. The New Yorker. May 16, 2011.
- 4.D'Angelo, Bob. Award-winning author Paula Fox dead at 93. Journal-News. March 4, 2017.
- 5.Italie, Hillel. Paula Fox looks back on a wayward life. newsvine.com. February 2013.
- 6."Hans Christian Andersen Awards". International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). Retrieved July 16, 2013.
- 7."Paula Fox" (pp. 58–59, by Eva Glistrup). The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956–2002. IBBY. Gyldendal. 2002. Hosted by Austrian Literature Online. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- 8."Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA). "The John Newbery Medal". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
- 9."National Book Awards – 1983". National Book Foundation (NBF). Retrieved February 27, 2012.
- 10.(Paula Fox, all listings). Datenbanksuche (database search). Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (DJLP). Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur (Jugend literatur). Retrieved July 16, 2013. For general information select "Infos zum Preis" or "English key facts".
- 11.Edemariam, Aida. A qualified optimist. The Guardian. June 21, 2003.
- 12.NYLA.
- 13.Kultur. Dagbladet (Bok). March 31, 2014.
- 14.Courtney loveless family tree remains in mystery as feud with Grandma sizzles. Observer. April 16, 2013.
- 15.Selvin, Joel. Courtney and Dad -- No Love Lost. San Francisco Chronicle. 1995-05-11.
- 16.Novak, Theresa. Love and fame provide themes for Corvallis author. Corvallis Gazette-Times. November 3, 2014.
- 17.Freeman, Nate. Courtney Loveless: Family Tree Remains Mystery as Feud with Grandma Sizzles. Observer. April 16, 2013.
- 18.Is It Fact or Is It Schmact?.
- 19.Wood, Gaby. Sins of the mothers. The Guardian. May 21, 2006.
- 20.Fox, Margalit. Paula Fox, Novelist Who Chronicled Dislocation, Dies at 93. The New York Times. March 3, 2017.
- 21."Coitado do Jorge" excerpt on Youtube. December 11, 2017.
- 22."Coitado do Jorge"(1993) at IMDB. July 13, 2009.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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