Childhood

Paula Fox was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Cuban-born screenwriter Elsie Fox (née "De Sola") Ancestry of Frances Bean Cobain and novelist Paul Hervey Fox. She was given up for adoption as an infant and was passed among various relatives and friends. In her 2001 memoir Borrowed Finery, Fox recalled that at her first meeting with her mother, at age five, "I sensed that if she could have hidden the act she would have killed me." Not long after, another visit with Paul and Elsie ended when her mother threw a glass at her.

Through adulthood

A teenage marriage produced a daughter, Linda, in 1944. However, given the tumultuous relationship with her own biological parents, she gave the child up for adoption. Fox later attended Columbia University, married the literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg, raised two sons, taught, and began to write.

The daughter Fox gave up for adoption, Linda Carroll, is the mother of the musician Courtney Love.

Adult Fiction

• 1967 Poor George
• 1970 Desperate Characters
• 1972 The Western Coast
• 1976 The Widow’s Children
• 1984 A Servant’s Tale
• 1990 The God of Nightmares

Children's Fiction

• 1966 Maurice's Room (pictures by Ingrid Fetz)
• 1967 How Many Miles to Babylon? (illustrated by Paul Giovanopoulos)
• 1967 A Likely Place (illustrated by Edward Ardizzone)
• 1968 Dear Prosper (illustrated by Steve McLachlin)
• 1968 The Stone-Faced Boy (illustrated by Donald A. Mackay)
• 1969 Hungry Fred (illustrated by Rosemary Wells)
• 1969 The King's Falcon (illustrated by Eros Keith)
• 1969 Portrait of Ivan (illustrated by Saul Lambert)
• 1970 Blowfish Live in the Sea
• 1973 Good Ethan (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• 1974 The Slave Dancer (illustrated by Eros Keith)
• 1978 The Little Swineherd and Other Tales (1996 edition illustrated by Robert Byrd)
• 1980 A Place Apart
• 1984 One-Eyed Cat
• 1986 The Moonlight Man ISBN 0-02-735480-6
• 1987 Lily and the Lost Boy (also published as The Lost Boy) ISBN 0-531-08320-9
• 1988 The Village by the Sea (also published as In a Place of Darkness)
• 1991 Monkey Island
• 1993 Western Wind
• 1995 The Eagle Kite (also published as The Gathering Darkness)
• 1997 Radiance Descending
• 1999 Amzat and His Brothers: Three Italian Tales

Memoirs

• 2001 Borrowed Finery
• 2005 The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe