Esther R. Hautzig was an American writer, best known for her award-winning book The Endless Steppe. Esther Rudomin was born in Wilno, Poland. Her childhood was interrupted by the beginning of World War II and the conquest in 1941 of eastern Poland by Soviet troops. Her family was uprooted and deported to Rubtsovsk, Siberia, where Esther spent the next five years in harsh exile. Her award winning novel The Endless Steppe is an autobiographical account of those years in Siberia. After the war, she and her family moved back to Poland when she was 15. Hautzig reportedly wrote The Endless Steppe at the prompting of Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, to whom she had written after reading his articles about his visit to Rubtsovsk. 

October 18th, 1930 in Vilnius  /  Died:   Nov 1st, 2009