Paul Zindel was born on Staten Island, New York, on May 15, 1936.

His father abandoned the family, dogged by poverty and frequent moves in New York, when Zindel was still very young, and this abandonment may by the source of the many broken families in his writings. Zindel was diagnosed with tuberculosis at fifteen and was placed in a sanatorium for a year and a half, which delayed his graduation from high school by a year. He earned a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Wagner College in 1958 and eventually a Master's degree in the same discipline as well. After a brief stint as a technical writer, he taught high school chemistry on Staten Island from 1959 to 1969.

4764 Loch Zindel began writing plays in college, but it was not until his interest in writing merged with his concern for his teenage students that he became fully focused...