Irvin Faust

Faust was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Morris and Pauline (née Henschel) Faust.^[1]

He served in the Army infantry during World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters and helped liberate Nazi concentration camps.^[2]

Attending school on the G.I. Bill,^[2] Faust earned a degree at City College and taught in New York City public schools.^[1] In the early 1950s Faust studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse.^[3] He later earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D. from Teacher's College of Columbia University.^[2] For many years he was the Director of Guidance at Garden City High School (New York), Garden City, NY.^[2]

Faust's doctoral thesis was published in 1963 under the title Entering Angel’s World: A Student-Centered Casebook.^[2] That success prompted him to take a creative writing course, and he soon sold his first short story, “Into the Green Night".^[2]

Between 1956 and 2008 Faust wrote seven novels, two books of short stories and a number of uncollected short stories for various publications.^[2] He described his writing as dealing "with the displacement and disorganization of Americans in urban life; with their attempt to find adjustments in the glossy attractions of the mass media-movies, radio, TV, advertising, etc.–and in the image-radiating seductions of our institutions.. Very often this “adjustment” is to the “normal” perception a derangement, but perfectly satisfying to my subjects."^[4]

His first major publication, Roar Lion Roar and Other Stories (1965), reviewed excellent reviews. Stanley Kauffmann described the opening the book “like clicking on a switch: at once we hear the electric hum of talent.”^[2] In The New York Times Book Review, Webster Schott said most of the stories “rise from Manhattan, isle of illusions, and all deal with the consequences of placing faith in fantasies.”^[2]

Willy Remembers (1971) tells the story of an elderly Spanish-American War veteran suffering from memory issues.^[2] In an introduction to the paperback edition of the book in 1983, Elmore Leonard wrote, “There is more sustained energy in the telling of what he remembered than in any novel I’ve ever read.”^[2]

The Steagle (1966) told of a professor who slips into a fantasy world during the Cuban missile crisis and travels the country seeking amorous adventures.^[2] It was made into a film of the same name in 1971. The film adaptation was directed by Paul Sylbert and starred Richard Benjamin, Chill Wills and Cloris Leachman.^[5]

His ill health reduced his writing in his later years, but he published a short story in 2008.^[4]

Faust met Jean Satterthwaite at a Christmas party in New York City.^[3] They married on August 29, 1959^[3] and remained married until Faust's death in 2012.^[2]

Faust died from pneumonia following a series of strokes.^[2]