Russell Hoban

Russell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and children's books. Hoban was born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, to Jewish immigrants from Ostrog . His father, Abram T. Hoban, was the advertising manager of the Jewish Daily Forward Yiddish-language newspaper and the director of The Drama Guild of the Labor Institute of the Workmen's Circle of Philadelphia. He died when his son was 11, and Russell was raised by his mother, Jeanette Dimmerman. He was named for Russell Conwell. After... briefly attending Temple University, he enlisted in the Army at age 18 and served in the Philippines and Italy as a radio operator during World War II, earning a bronze star. During his military service, he married his first wife, Lillian Aberman, who later became a writer and illustrator in her own right. They had four children before divorcing in 1975.
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