Reindeer Soup

Joseph Thomas Pintauro was born in Queens, New York on November 22, 1930. He received a bachelor's degree in business and marketing from Manhattan College in 1953. He received a degree in philosophy and Latin from St. Jerome's College before going through Our Lady of Angels Seminary at Niagara University. He was ordained in Brooklyn in 1958. He was assigned to parishes in the Flatbush and then Williamsburg sections of Brooklyn. He pursued his writing interests during his free time. By the mid-1960s, he was growing restless in the priesthood and asked his bishop for permission to seek a job in the secular world. The request was granted in 1966 and he took a job in advertising. He published a book of poetry, To Believe in God, in 1968. After losing his advertising job and having had his priestly status withdrawn by the church in the 1970s, he decided to become a full-time writer. His novel, Cold Hands, was published in 1979. He wrote several plays including Snow Orchid, Beside Herself, The Dead Boy, Raft of the Medusa, Men's Lives, and Cathedral. He died from prostate cancer on May 29, 2018 at the age of 87.