Paul Auster was born on February 3rd, 1947, in Newark, New Jersey, to a middle-class family with a father who was a landlord owning buildings with his brothers in Jersey City. His parents' marriage was unhappy, and Auster grew up in the suburbs of South Orange and Maplewood, where he developed a passion for reading and writing.
Auster attended high school in Maplewood, and after his parents' divorce, he moved to an apartment in Newark with his mother and sister. Instead of attending his high school graduation, Auster traveled to Europe, visiting Italy, Spain, Paris, and Dublin, where he worked on a novel.
He returned to the United States and started at Columbia University in the fall, where he began a relationship with Lydia Davis, a writer who was attending Barnard College. Auster then left the US again to attend Columbia's Junior Year Abroad in Paris, but he became disillusioned with the program and quit college.
Auster was reinstated at Columbia when he returned to New York and completed his undergraduate degree in English and comparative literature in 1969. He received his M.A. from Columbia the following year.
Auster's undergraduate years coincided with a period of social unrest, but he did not participate actively in student politics. He supported himself with freelance jobs and wrote articles for university magazines.
In 1969, Auster was granted a B.A. in English and comparative literature, and the following year, he received his M.A. from Columbia.
