Grace Paley

Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 - ) is an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work has won a number of awards.

Early life

Grace Paley was born Grace Goodside on December 11, 1922, in the Bronx. Her Jewish parents, Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, had Anglicizied the family name from "Gutseit" on immigrating from Ukraine at the age of 21, and spoke Russian and Yiddish in the home along with English. By far the youngest of the three Goodside children (sixteen and fourteen years younger than brothers Thomas and Victor, respectively), Paley was something of a tomboy as a child, allowing her to investigate the conflicts and struggles of her immigrant neighborhood; these issues would later form the raw material for much of her fiction.

Related Topics:
Bronx - Jew - Ukraine - Russian - Yiddish - English - Tomboy

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In 1938 and 1939, Paley attended Hunter College, then, briefly New York University, but she never received a degree. In the early 1940s, Paley studied with W.H. Auden at the New School for Social Research; his social concern and his heavy use of irony is often cited as an important influence on her early work, particularly her poetry.

Related Topics:
1938 - 1939 - Hunter College - New York University - 1940s - W.H. Auden - Irony

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On June 20, 1942, Grace Paley married Jess Paley, a motion-picture cameraman, and soon after had two children, Nora and Danny. Though Paley separated from her husband not long after the birth of her children, they would not be legally divorced until her 1972 marriage to landscape architect and author Robert Nichols.

Related Topics:
June 20 - 1942 - 1972 - Architect

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