Daniel Fuchs was born in New York City and grew up in the poor section of Brooklyn that became the setting for his early novels. His parents were Jacob Fuchs, a newsstand owner, and Sara (Cohen) Fuchs. Fuchs's writing talent developed early; after serving as editor of his high-school paper, he went on to City College of New York, where he majored in philosophy and graduated in 1930. Soon after that, he sent a long account of growing up in Williamsburg to the New Republic, where editor Malcolm Cowley encouraged Fuchs to turn it into a novel and also published part of it in the magazine as "Where Al Capone Grew Up" (1931). During this time Fuchs was working as a permanent substitute teacher in the Brooklyn public school system. He wrote his first two novels during summer vacations. In 1932 he married Susan Chessen; they have two sons. Fuchs's first...