Paul Zindel has had a rough childhood. His father left him and his mother when he was two years old. He did not have the best relationship with his mother and all those things caused him to have little self-esteem. Readers can find similarities in his work when it came to his childhood. Zindel graduated from Wagner College in Staten Island. He then taught high school chemistry for ten years until he quit his job to become a writer. He then wrote his first play called The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. This play won a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Desk Critic’s Circle Award. An editor who seen Zindel’s play encouraged him to write The Pigman. The Pigman,along with many others, is credited for creating a new section
