Paul Auster, a late distinguished writer and film director who gained prominence in the 1980s with his innovative postmodern revitalization of the noir novel, continued to shape the literary landscape as one of the quintessential New York writers of his era. At the time of his death on April 30, 2024, Auster had amassed a net worth of $25 million. He died of complications from lung cancer at 77.
On March 11, 2023, Paul’s novelist wife, Siri Hustvedt, shared about his diagnosis on Instagram, “My husband was diagnosed with cancer in December after having been ill for several months before that. He is now being treated at Sloan Kettering in New York, and I have been living in a place I have come to call Cancerland.” She continued, “Some people survive it, and others die. This everyone knows, and yet living close to that truth changes everyday reality.”
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His death was confirmed by his friend and fellow author, Jacki Lyden.
Following his passing, numerous well-wishers and admirers shared their memories and tributes. Meghan O’Rourke, an author and poet, wrote in an email: “Paul Auster was the Brooklyn novelist back in the ’80s and ’90s, when I was growing up there, at a time when very few famous writers lived in the borough. His books were on all my parents’ friends’ shelves. As teenagers, my friends and I read Auster’s work avidly for both its strangeness — that touch of European surrealism — and its closeness.”
Born in 1937 in Newark, N.J., to Jewish middle-class parents of Austrian descent, Paul graduated from Columbia University with undergraduate and Master’s degrees. He later moved to Paris and began translating French literature. He returned to the United States in 1974.
In his 20s, Auster published essays, poems, and translations, but his major breakthrough came with the publication of “City of Glass” in 1985, the first novel of his New York Trilogy. Despite initial rejections by 17 publishers, it marked the beginning of his prominent literary career.
His other significant works include “Moon Palace” (1989), “The Music of Chance” (1990), “The Book of Illusions” (2002), and more.
He Had a House in Brooklyn
Auster had been residing in his Park Slope, Brooklyn home since the 1980s. He shared this elegant home with his wife, Siri Hustvedt. Each room was sparingly yet beautifully furnished.
Mr. Auster once told The New York Times, “This house is a reflection of Siri and her Scandinavian craving for order. I, unfortunately for my sins, am impervious to my physical surroundings. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but I’d be incapable of creating such a place.”
The house served solely as a family refuge; it was not Auster’s creative hub. Each day, the prolific memoirist would retreat to a studio, a space distinctly separate from the orderly home environment. Describing his workspace, Paul admitted, “In my studio, it is unkempt and unattractive. Once I’m in my work, I don’t notice where I am.”
