Esther Hautzig is the author of many books for children and adults. "The Endless Steppe" is an autobiographical account of her childhood in Siberia. It was a 1969 National Book Award nominee and an ALA Notable Children's Book of 1968. It also received the 1969 Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the 1971 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Mrs. Hautzig is also the author of "Riches", an original Jewish folktale, which was a finalist for the 1993 Jewish Book Award. She lives in New York City.
show more 
show less
Esther Hautzig was born on October 18, 1930. During World War II, her family was exiled from Poland to Siberia, where they worked in labor camps. In 1947, she traveled via ocean liner to New York on a student visa. While aboard the ocean liner, she met the Vienna-born pianist Walter Hautzig, who was returning from a concert tour. They married in 1950. She enrolled in Hunter College, but never finished because a professor there told her that her accent would disqualify her from becoming a teacher. She took a job as a secretary at the publisher G. P. Putnam's Sons and later was promoted to children's books. During her lifetime she wrote numerous books including Let's Cook without Cooking (1955), Let's Make Presents (1962), A Gift for Mama (1987), Remember Who You Are: Stories About Being Jewish (1990), Riches (1992) and A Picture of Grandmother (2002). The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia (1968) won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. She also translated stories by the Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz. She died of congestive heart failure and complications of Alzheimer's disease on November 1, 2009 at the age of 79.
